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1. Kororarika.—All this fighting of the Maori tribes made them more dependent on the trade they
had with white men. They could neither make guns nor powder
for themselves, and the tribe that could purchase none of the white man’s
weapons was sure to be slaughtered and eaten by other tribes. Hence
white men were more eagerly welcomed, and in course of time nearly two hundred
of them were living Maori fashion with the tribes. But it was at the Bay of
Islands that the chief trading was carried on. For it was there that the kauri
timber grew; it was there that the pigs were most plentiful and the cargoes of
flax most easily obtained; and when a man named Turner set up a grog-shop on
the shores of the bay all the whaling ships made this their usual place for
resting and refitting. Behind the beach the hills rise steeply, and on these
hills a number of white men built themselves homes securely fenced, and
defended, sometimes even by a cannon or two. But down
on the little green flat next to the beach, rude houses were more numerous. In
the year 1838 there were about 500 persons resident in the little town, which
was now called Kororarika, but at times there were nearly double that number of
people resident in it for months together. A wild and reckless place it was,
for sailors reckoned themselves there to be beyond the
reach of English law.
At one time as many as thirty-six ships lay off the town of Kororarika,
and in a single year 150 ships visited the bay; generally staying a month or
more at anchor. The little church and the Catholic mission station up on the
hill did less good to the natives than these rough sailors did harm, and at
length the more respectable white men could stand the disorder no longer. They
formed an association to maintain decency. They seized, tried, fined or
sometimes locked up for a time the worst offenders, and twice they stripped the
ruffians naked, gave them a coat of tar, stuck them all over with white down
from a native plant, and when they were thus decorated, expelled them from the
town, with a promise of the same treatment if ever they were seen back in it.
2. Hokianga.—Long before this the
capacities of New Zealand and the chances of making wealth there became well
known in England, and in 1825 an association was formed to colonise the
country. It sent out an agent, who reported that Hokianga, a deep estuary on
the west coast, just opposite to Kororarika, and only thirty miles away from
it, was a charming place for a settlement. The agent bought a square mile of
land from the Maoris and also two little islands in the harbour. The company
fitted out a ship the Rosanna, and sixty colonists sailed out in her to form
the pioneers of the new colony. They landed, and liked the look of the place,
but they were timid by reason of the tales they had heard of Maori ferocity.
Now at this time the Ngapuhis were at war with the Arawas, and the latter were
getting up a war dance, which the settlers were just in time to see. Five or
six hundred men stood in four long rows, stamping in time to a chant of their
leader. It was night, a fire lit up their quivering limbs and their rolling
eyes; they joined in a chorus, and when they came to particular words they
hissed like a thousand serpents; they went through the performance of killing
their enemies, cutting up their bodies and eating them. The settlers fell into
deep meditation and departed. Not half a dozen remained in New Zealand, the
others went to Sydney, and so after an expense of £20,000 this association,
which had been formed for the kindly purpose of putting people in lands less crowded than their own, failed and was disbanded.
3. Settled Government.—Between 1825 and 1835 the Maoris of the North Island were in
a miserable state. Wars and massacres and cannibal feasts made the country
wretched, and though the missionaries were respected they could not secure
peace. But they persuaded the chiefs of some of the weaker tribes to appeal to
England for protection against the conquering warriors who oppressed and
destroyed their people. It was in 1831 that this petition was sent to King William, and about the same time the white men at
Kororarika, terrified at the violence with which the Waikato men were ravaging
the surrounding lands, asked the Governor at Sydney to interfere. The result
was that although the English would not regularly take possession of New
Zealand, they chose Mr. Busby, a gentleman well known in New South Wales, to be
the Resident there, his business being, so far as possible, to keep order. How
he was to keep order without men or force to make his commands obeyed it is
hard to see; but he was expected to do whatever could be done by persuasion,
and to send for a British war-ship if ever he thought it was needed.
The first war-ship that thus came over did more harm than good. Its
visit was caused by a disastrous wreck. The whaling barque Harriet, under the
command of a man named Guard, a low fellow who had formerly been a convict, was
trading among the islands when she was wrecked off the coast of Taranaki. The
Maoris attacked the stranded ship, but the crew stayed on her and fired into
the assailants, and it was not till after quite a siege, in which twelve seamen
were killed, that the rest fled from the wreck, leaving Mrs. Guard and her two
children in the hands of the Taranaki tribe. Guard and twelve seamen, however,
though they escaped for a time were caught by a
neighbouring tribe, to whom he promised a cask of gunpowder if they would help
him to reach an English ship. This they did, and Guard reached Sydney, where he
begged Sir Richard Bourke to send a vessel for the rescue of his wife and
children. Bourke sent the Alligator, with a company of soldiers, who landed and
demanded the captive seamen. These were given up, but the captain of the ship
supported Guard in breaking his promise and refusing to give the powder, under
the plea that it was a bad thing for natives. The Alligator then went round to
Taranaki for the woman and children. The chief of the tribe came down to the
beach and said they would be given up for a ransom. The white men seized him,
dragged him into their boat to be a hostage, but he jumped out of the boat and
was speared with bayonets. He was taken to the ship nearly dead. Then the
natives gave up the woman and one child in return for their chief. After some
parley a native came down to the beach with the other child on his shoulders.
He said he would give it up if a proper ransom was paid. The English said they
would give no ransom, and when the man turned to go away again, they shot him
through the back, quite dead. The child was recovered, but Mrs. Guard and the
children testified that this native had been a good friend to them when in
captivity. Nevertheless, his head was cut off and tumbled about on the beach.
The Alligator then bombarded the native pah, destroyed all its houses to the
number of 200, with all the provisions they contained, killing from twenty to
thirty men in the process. This scarcely agreed with the letter which Mr. Busby
had just received, in which he was directed to express to the Maori chiefs the
regret which the King of England felt at the injuries committed by white men
against Maoris.
4. Captain Hobson.—But there were many
difficulties in securing justice between fickle savages and white men who were
in general so ruffianly as those who then dwelt in New
Zealand. The atrocities of the Harriet episode did some good, however, for
along with other circumstances they stirred up the English Government to make
some inquiries into the manner in which Englishmen treated the natives of
uncivilised countries. These inquiries showed much injustice and sometimes
wanton cruelty, and when a petition came from the respectable people of
Kororarika, asking that some check should be put upon the licence of the low
white men who frequented that port, the English Government resolved to annex
New Zealand if the Maoris were willing to be received into the British Empire.
For that purpose they chose Captain Hobson, a worthy and upright sea-captain,
who in his ship of war, the Rattlesnake, had seen much of Australia and New
Zealand. It was he who had taken Sir Richard Bourke to Port Phillip in 1837,
and Hobson’s Bay was named in his honour. After that he had been sent by Bourke
to the Bay of Islands to inquire into the condition of things there, and when
he had gone home to England he had given evidence as to the disorder which
prevailed in New Zealand. He was sent in a war-ship, the Druid, with
instructions to keep the white men in order, and to ask the natives if they
would like to become subjects of Queen Victoria and live under her protection.
If they agreed to do so, he was to form New Zealand into an English colony and
he was to be its Lieutenant-Governor under the general control of the Governor
of New South Wales.
Hobson reached Sydney at the end of 1839 and conferred with Governor
Gipps, who helped him to draw up proclamations and regulations for the work to
be done. On leaving Sydney, Hobson took with him a treasurer and a collector of
customs for the new colony, a sergeant of police and four mounted troopers of
the New South Wales force, together with a police magistrate to try offenders,
and two clerks to assist in the work of government. It was the 29th of January,
1840, when he landed at the Bay of Islands. Next day, on the beach, he read
several proclamations, one of which asserted that all British subjects, even
though resident in New Zealand, were still bound to obey British laws; and
another declared that as white men were tricking the Maoris into selling vast
tracts of land for goods of little value, all such bargains made after that
date would be illegal, while all made before that date would be inquired into
before being allowed. It was declared that if the Maoris in future wished to
sell their land the Governor would buy it and pay a fair price for it. All
white men who wished for land could then buy from the Governor. Three days
later the respectable white men of Kororarika waited on Captain Hobson to
congratulate him on his arrival and to promise him their obedience and
assistance.
5. Treaty of Waitangi.—Meantime Hobson
had asked the missionaries to send word round to all the neighbouring chiefs
that he would like to see them, and on the 5th of February, 1840, a famous
meeting took place on the shore of the Bay of Islands near the mouth of the
pretty river Waitangi. There on a little platform on a chair of state sat the
new Governor, with the officers of the ship in their uniform, and a guard of
mariners and sailors; while beside the platform stood the leading white men of
Kororarika. Flags fluttered all round the spot. At noon, when Hobson took his
seat, there were over five hundred Maoris, of whom fifty were chiefs, in front
of the platform. Then one of the missionaries rose and in the Maori tongue
explained what the Queen of England proposed. First, that the Maoris, of their own accord, should allow their country to be joined to the
British Empire. Second, that the Queen would protect them in their right to
their land and all their property, and see that no white men interfered with
them in it, but that if they chose to sell any of their land, then the Governor
would buy it from them. Third, that the Queen would extend to the Maoris, if
they so desired, all the rights and privileges of British subjects and the
protection of British law.
When these proposals had been fully explained the Maoris were asked to
say what they thought of them. Twenty-six chiefs spoke in favour of accepting, and so bringing about peace and order in the
land. Six spoke against them, declaring that thus would the Maoris be made
slaves. The natives seemed very undecided, when Waka
Nene arose and in an eloquent address showed the miseries of the land now that
fire-arms had been introduced, and begged his countrymen to place themselves
under the rule of a queen who was able and willing to make the country quiet
and happy. The Maoris were greatly excited, and Hobson therefore gave them a
day to think over the matter. There was much discussion all night long among
the neighbouring pahs and villages; but the next day when the Maoris gathered,
forty-six chiefs put their marks to the parchment now always known as the
treaty of Waitangi.
This treaty was taken by missionaries and officers from tribe to tribe, and in the course of two or three months over five
hundred chiefs had signed it. On the 21st May, Hobson proclaimed that the
islands of New Zealand were duly added to the British Empire, and that he would
assume the rule of the new colony as Lieutenant-Governor. Meantime houses had
been built at Kororarika for the Governor and his officers; a custom-house had
been set up, and taxes were levied on all goods landed, so as to provide a revenue with which to pay these and other Government
expenses.
6. Auckland.—But the people at
Kororarika had bought from the natives all the level land in the place, and
thinking their town would soon be a great city, and the capital of an important
colony, they would not sell it except at very high prices. Now Captain Hobson
had seen at the head of the Hauraki Gulf a place which seemed to him to be more
suitable for the capital of the future colony. To this lovely spot he changed
his residence. He bought from the natives about thirty thousand acres, and on
an arm of the gulf, where the Waitemata harbour spreads its shining waters, he
caused a town to be surveyed and streets to be laid out. In April, 1841, after
he had reserved sufficient land for Government offices, parks and other public
purposes, he caused the rest to be offered in allotments for sale by auction.
There was a general belief that now, when the islands were formally annexed to
the British Empire, New Zealand would be a most prosperous colony, and that
land in its capital would go up rapidly in value. Many speculators came over
from Sydney. The bidding was brisk, and the allotments were sold at the rate of
about six hundred pounds per acre. A few months later a sale was held of lands
in the suburbs and of farming lands a little way out from the town. This was
again successful. Houses began to spring up, most of them slender in structure,
but with a few of solid appearance. Next year ships arrived from England with
560 immigrants, who rapidly settled on the land, and before long a thriving
colony was formed. The little town was very pretty, with green hills behind the
branching harbour that lay in front, dotted with volcanic islets. The whole
district was green; and the figures of Maoris in the grassy streets, their
canoes bringing in vegetables to market, their pahs seen far off on the
neighbouring hills, gave the scene a charming touch of the romantic. A company
of six soldiers with four officers came from Sydney to defend the settlers, and
barracks were built for them. The name chosen for the city was Auckland, after
a gentleman named Eden, who had taken for half a century a deep interest in
colonising experiments, and who had been raised to the peerage with the title
of Lord Auckland.
7. New Zealand Company.—Meantime another part of New Zealand had been colonised
under very different circumstances. The English association, which in 1825
attempted to form a settlement at Hokianga and failed, had consisted of very
influential men. They had not given up their plans altogether, and in 1837 they
formed a new association called the New Zealand Company. That restless theorist
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who had already sent out the settlers who had just
founded Adelaide, joined this association, and impressed the members with his own
idea already described on page 67. It was arranged that a colony should be sent
out to New Zealand on the plan of a complete little community. There were to be
gentlemen and clergymen and teachers; so many farmers, so many carpenters, so
many blacksmiths; every trade was to be represented so that everybody would
have something to do, and there would be none too many of any one kind. A bill
was brought before Parliament for the purpose of establishing a colony after
this fashion, and at first Parliament was inclined to
favour the bill. But the missionaries in New Zealand were hostile to the
proposal. They were steadily converting the Maoris to Christianity. They hoped
to turn them into quiet, industrious and prosperous people, if white men did
not come and take away their land from them. Parliament, therefore, refused to
pass the bill. But the company had gone too far to retreat. It had already
arranged with many settlers to take them and their families out to New Zealand,
and had begun to sell land at so much an acre, nobody knew where except that it
was to be in New Zealand. They therefore quietly purchased and fitted out a
vessel named the Tory to go to New Zealand and make arrangements. The party was
under the charge of Colonel Wakefield, brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield; and
he took with him surveyors to lay out the land, farming experts to judge of the
soil, and a scientific man to report on the natural products. This vessel
sailed away quietly in May, 1839, hoping to reach New Zealand unnoticed. The English
Government heard of it however, informed the company that its action was
illegal, and immediately afterwards sent off Captain Hobson in the Druid, as
has been already described, to take possession on behalf of the British nation.
The New Zealand Company then apologised; said that they would direct their
agents who had gone out to New Zealand to obey the Governor in all things, and
promised that the new settlement should abide by the law.
8. Wellington.—Meantime the Tory was
ploughing the deep on her way to New Zealand. Her passengers first saw the new
country on the west coast of the South Island. They were then very much
disappointed, for the shore was high and wild, the mountains were close behind
it, and their lofty sides were gloomy and savage. The whole scene was grand,
but did not promise much land that would be suitable for farming. They turned
into Cook Strait, and anchored in Queen Charlotte Sound, a lovely harbour, but
surrounded by high hills clothed in dark and heavy forests. When they landed,
they were amazed at the depth and richness of the black soil and the immense
size to which the trees grew. Such a soil could grow all sorts of produce in
rich abundance, but it would cost forty pounds an acre to clear it for
ploughing. Boats were got out, however, and parties rowed up into all the
branches of the beautiful harbour, but without seeing any sufficient extent of
level or open land. Then they crossed the strait, and sailing in by a narrow
entrance, viewed all the wide expanse of Port Nicholson. It was a great harbour
with a little wooded island in its middle; it opened out into quiet arms all
fringed with shelly beaches, and behind these rose range after range of majestic mountains. The trouble was that here too the land which
was fairly level was too limited in extent to satisfy the colony’s needs; for
already in England the company had sold 100,000 acres of farming land, and the
purchasers would soon be on their way to occupy it. After examining the shores
with care they chose the beach of the east side as the site for their town.
Behind it stretched the beautiful valley of the Hutt River, enclosed by
mountains, but with broad grassy meadows lying between. Here they started to
build a town which they called Britannia, and they made friends with the Maoris
of the district. A Pakeha Maori named Barrett acted as interpreter. The natives
went on board the Tory, were shown 239 muskets, 300 blankets, 160 tomahawks and
axes, 276 shirts, together with a quantity of looking-glasses, scissors,
razors, jackets, pots, and scores of other things, with eighty-one kegs of
gunpowder, two casks of cartridges and more than a ton of tobacco. They were
asked if they would sell all the land that could be seen from the ship in
return for these things. They agreed, signed some papers and took the goods on
shore, where they at once began to use the muskets in a grand fight among
themselves for the division of the property. It was soon discovered that the
site of the town was too much exposed to westerly gales, and the majority of
the settlers crossed Port Nicholson to a narrow strip of grassy land between a
pretty beach and some steep hills. Here was founded the town called Wellington,
after the famous duke.
By this time the settlers were arriving thick and fast. The first came
in the Aurora, which reached the settlement on 22nd January, 1840; other ships
came at short intervals, till there were twelve at anchor in Port Nicholson.
The settlers were pleased with the country; they landed in good spirits and set
to work to make themselves houses. All was activity—surveyors, carpenters,
bricklayers, blacksmiths, every one busy, and rapidly a smart little town of
some hundred houses rose behind the beach. The Maoris came and helped in the
work, getting three or four shillings a day for their services, and proving
themselves very handy in many ways. All were in sanguine spirits, when word
came from Governor Hobson at Auckland that, in accordance with his
proclamation, all purchases of land from the natives were illegal, he having
come to protect the Maoris from imposition.
9. The Land Question.—Now Colonel
Wakefield had fancied that he had bought 20,000,000 acres for less than £9,000
worth of goods, and he was assigning it as fast as he could to people who had
paid £1 an acre to the company in England. Here was a sad fix. The Governor
sent down his chief officer, Mr. Shortland, who rode across the island with the
mounted police, and told the settlers not to fancy the land theirs, as he would
ere long have to turn them off. Disputes arose, for it seemed absurd that
fifty-eight Maori chiefs should sell the land on which many thousands of people
dwelt, the majority of these people never having so much as heard of the
bargain. The settlers talked of starting for South America and forming a colony
in Chili, but more kept on coming, so that they had not ships enough to take
them across. And, besides, they had paid a pound an acre to the company and
demanded their land. Colonel Wakefield went off to Auckland to talk the matter
over with Governor Hobson, who left the difficulty to be settled by his
superior, Governor Gipps, at Sydney.
Wakefield then went to Sydney to see Governor Gipps, who said that the
whole thing was irregular, but that he would allow the settlers to occupy the
land, supposing that every Maori who had a proper claim to any part of it got
due compensation, and if twenty acres of the central part of Wellington were
reserved for public buildings. These conditions Wakefield agreed to, and, very
glad to have got out of a serious difficulty, he returned with the good
tidings. Shortly afterwards Governor Hobson himself visited Wellington, but was
very coldly received by the settlers there.
In the next two years 350 ships arrived at Wellington, bringing out over
4,000 settlers. Of these about 1,000 went up into the valleys and made farms;
but 3,000 stayed in and around Wellington, which then grew to be a substantial
little town, with four good piers, about 200 houses of wood or brick and about
250 houses of more slender construction. More than 200 Maoris could be seen in
its streets clad in the European clothes given as payment for the land. In all
there were about 700 Maoris in the district, and for their use the company set
apart 11,000 acres of farm lands, and 110 acres in the town. Roads were being
made into the fertile valleys, where eight or ten thousand acres were occupied
as farms and being rapidly cleared and tilled. Parties were organised to go
exploring across the mountains. They brought back word that inland the soil was
splendid, sometimes covered with forests, sometimes with meadows of long grass
or New Zealand flax, but always watered by beautiful rivers and under a lovely
climate. The Maoris were everywhere friendly throughout their journey.
10. Taranaki.—In the beginning of the year 1840, an emigration society had been formed in the
south-west of England to enable the farm labourers and miners of Cornwall,
Devon, and Dorset to settle in less crowded lands. The Earl of Devon was its
president, and Plymouth its headquarters. They chose New Zealand for the site
of their colony, and understanding that the New Zealand Company had bought half
of the North Island they gave that company £10,000 for the right to select
60,000 acres of it. It was in March, 1841, that the pioneers of this new colony
arrived at Wellington under the guidance of Mr. Carrington, a surveyor in the
ship William Bryant. The exploring party had just come back, and its report of
the Taranaki land was very tempting. Immediately after receiving that report Colonel
Wakefield had gone off to purchase it. He found a few natives left there, the
remnant of the tribes whom Te Whero Whero had either destroyed or carried into
slavery. These few people had taken refuge up in the awful solitudes of the
giant Mount Egmont, but had come back to dwell, a sorrow-stricken handful, in
the homes of their fathers. Barrett was left to arrange a bargain with them,
and in return for a quantity of goods they sold all the land along sixty miles
of coast with a depth of fifteen miles inland. This was the land which
Wakefield recommended for the new settlers, and he lent them a ship to take
them round. There they landed, and in spite of their disappointment at the want
of a safe harbour, they set to work and built up their little town, which they
called New Plymouth.
In September of the same year the main body of
settlers arrived for this new colony, and were landed at Taranaki, when
they immediately scattered out over the country, as fast as Carrington could
survey it for them. But there was now a difficulty. For Te
Whero Whero and his tribe had released many hundreds of the Taranaki natives
who had been carried off as slaves. Whether it was because they had now
become Christians or because the slaves were more in number than they could use,
it was not easy to determine; but at any rate, in that very month of September
when hundreds of white men were arriving to occupy the land, hundreds of Maoris
were coming back to re-occupy it. They begged the settlers not to fell their
big trees, but were very mild in their conduct. They chose places not yet
claimed by the white men, and there fenced in the land on which to grow their
sweet potatoes.
Meanwhile there was another complication. By Maori custom a warrior had
the ownership of the lands he conquered. Governor Hobson therefore regarded Te
Whero Whero as the owner of the Taranaki land, and gave him £400 for his right
to it. Hobson declared that the Auckland Government was the owner of this land,
and that all settlers must buy it from him. Eventually the trouble was cleared
up for the time being, when Hobson allowed the company to keep ten miles of
coast running back five or six miles, the rest to belong to the Government,
which would set aside a certain part for the use of the Maoris. In December,
1842, a settler claimed a piece of land which a Maori had fenced in; he pulled
down the fence; the Maoris put it up again. The settler assisted by an officer
pulled it down once more. A young chief who brandished a tomahawk and
threatened mischief was arrested, and carried into New Plymouth where a
magistrate liberated him, and declared the action of the settler illegal.
Matters for a time kept in this unfriendly state, ominously hinting the desperate
war that was to follow.
11. Wanganui.—Meanwhile the settlers in the Wellington district were
finding that by crossing difficult mountains they could get sufficient level
land for their purpose, and at the close of 1840 two hundred of them sailed 150
miles north to where the river Wanganui falls into Cook Strait. The land was
rich and the district beautiful. Colonel Wakefield supposed that he had bought
the whole of it, though the natives afterwards proved that they sold only a
part on the north side of the river. Here, about four miles from the mouth of
the stream, the settlers formed a little town which they called Petre, but
which is now known as Wanganui. The natives were numerous; on the river banks
their villages were frequent, and up on the hills, that rose
all around like an amphitheatre, the palisades of their fortified pahs
were easily visible. But the fine black soil of the district, in places grassy,
in places with patches of fine timber, proved very attractive to the settlers,
and soon there came half a dozen ships with more colonists direct from England.
The natives were friendly to white men, and gave them a cordial welcome. Down
the river came their canoes laden with pigs, potatoes, melons, and gourds for
sale in the market of the little town. All was good-will until the Maoris found
that the white men had come not merely to settle among them, but to appropriate
all the best of the land. Then their tempers grew sour and the prospect
steadily grew more unpleasant.
12. Nelson.—The emigration spirit was at this time strong in England; for it was in the
year 1840 to 1841 that free settlers chiefly colonised both Victoria and South
Australia. New Zealand was as much a favourite as any, and when the New Zealand
Company proposed in 1841 to form a new colony somewhere in that country to be
called Nelson, nearly 100,000 acres were sold at thirty shillings an acre to
men who did not know even in which island of New Zealand the land was to be
situated. In April of the same year the pioneers of the new settlement started
in the ships Whitby and Will Watch, with about eighty settlers, their wives,
families and servants. Captain Arthur Wakefield was the leader, and he took the
ships to Wellington, where they waited while he went out to search for a
suitable site. He chose a place at the head of Tasman Bay, where, in a green
hollow fringed by a beautiful beach and embosomed deep in majestic hills, the
settlers soon gathered in the pretty little town of Nelson. The soil was black
earth resting on great boulders; out of it grew low bushes easily cleared away,
and here and there stood a few clumps of trees to give a grateful shade. The
place was shut in by the hills so as to be completely sheltered from the
boisterous gales of Cook Strait, and altogether it was a place of dreamy
loveliness. Its possession was claimed by Rauparaha, the warrior, on the ground
of conquest. With him and other chiefs the settlers had a conference, the
result of which was that a certain specified area round the head of the bay was
purchased. But the white men regarded themselves as having the right of
superior beings to go where they wished and do with the land what they wished.
Finding a seam of good coal at a place outside their purchase they did not in
any way scruple to send a vessel to carry it off, in spite of the protests of
the Maoris.
13. Death of Governor Hobson.—These things hinted at troubles which
were to come, but in 1842 all things looked promising for the colonies of New
Zealand. There were altogether about 12,000 white persons, most of them being
men who wore blue shirts and lived on pork and potatoes. Auckland the capital
had 3,000 but, Wellington was the largest town with 4,000 people. Next to that
came Nelson with 2,500; New Plymouth and Wanganui were much smaller but yet
thriving places. They had no less than nine newspapers, most of them little
primitive sheets, but wonderful in communities so young. In October, 1841, Dr.
George Selwyn was appointed to be Bishop of New Zealand; and he left England
with a number of clergymen who settled in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and New
Plymouth. Churches began to spring up, and schools not
only for white children, but also for Maoris. An immense change for the better
had appeared among the Maoris. The last case of cannibalism took place about
this time; and though they still fought among one another, it was not with the
same awful bloodshed that had characterised the previous twenty years.
On the 16th November, 1840, the Queen declared New Zealand an
independent colony. Hobson was then no longer Lieutenant-Governor merely, and
subject to the Governor at Sydney. He was Governor Hobson, and of equal rank
with all the other Governors. He now had a Legislative Council to assist him in
making for New Zealand such laws as might be needed in her peculiar
circumstances. In that council the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the
Surveyor-General, the Attorney-General and the Protector of the Maoris had
seats. But Hobson did not long enjoy his new dignity. He had had a difficult
task to perform, and his duty had led him into conflict with many people who
wished to purchase their land from the natives at ridiculous prices. In the
midst of his worries he had several strokes of paralysis, of which the last
killed him in September, 1842; and he was buried in the cemetery at Auckland.
He had lived, however, to see New Zealand colonised, and had died much liked by
the Maoris, without seeing any of that bitter struggle between the two races which was soon to shed so much blood and waste so much
treasure.
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