So how did you get here then

Welcome to my, so how did you get here then, blog. This little blogging adventure started for me following a discussion with a friend and colleague about the potential of a new business opportunity. During the course of our conversation he mentioned that his forefathers had arrived on the shores of our wonderful country in the good ship “Bolton”, my ears pricked up, he had my attention.

I am a 5th generation New Zealander on my mothers’ side, good old “British pioneering stock” from the “mother country”, that much I knew. My forebears by 5, had emigrated to New Zealand pretty early on, arriving on the "Bolton" in April 1840. That was about the extent of the knowledge I had gleaned from bits and pieces of information, and brief conversations over the years. But it was the conversation with my friend that started me thinking.

How many other people do I know, work alongside and share my life with that are connected, not necessarily by blood, but through some significant event along the way, many is probably the answer. It fascinated me that our paths had crossed as a result of a decision and choice that our forefathers had made over 170 years ago. Who were those people, our own flesh and blood? They had lived in a tiny village in Cornwall England, for generations probably. What had motivated them to leave all that they knew and venture to the other side of the world, with a young family? What was happening in their lives at the time that provided the sort of motivation, energy and passion to give up all that they knew and risk the unknown? What was the trip like on the sailing ship, what did they find when they arrived, the questions seemed endless and my knowledge was so limited.

I had picked up a bit during my 13 years in the education system, along with my “baby boomer” friends, it wasn’t all wasted. Social Studies had not been a favourite of mine, but thinking about it, not many subjects had.

What I had come to understand was from a pretty “broad brush” perspective, from Tasman to Cook, then the whalers and sealers. Then the missionaries appeared around 1820, they were the good guys. The Maori liked them as well because they bought the muskets, a much more effective way of getting your enemies into the cooking pot. In the mid 1830’s the British government unsuccessfully sent a guy out to New Zealand called Busby, with the task of sorting out the wicked whalers, who had turned the Bay of Islands into the “hell hole of the Pacific”. In the late 1830’s a British capitalist guy called Wakefield decided that New Zealand would be a good place to make some money. Establish a British colony and create a “little Britain”, seemed like a good idea. So in late 1839 he sent his first six ships, the "Bolton" leaving in November, laden with expectant settlers. The British government now had a major problem. Their response was to send William Hobson to New Zealand with the task of formalising a relationship with the Maori and to establish a British colony, before things got completely out of control.

As the New Zealanders among us know, that all happened in February 1840 and “the British kept a coming” in great numbers for the next 40 to 50 years. The resulting clash of cultures, land disputes between the settlers and Maori, culminated in the Maori Wars, focused around Taranaki and the Waikato, which we won of course!! Oh, and there was a gold rush or two in there somewhere as well.

So that was about it really, my 13 years of social studies and NZ history summarized in a paragraph. I have picked up a little more over the last 40 odd years (very odd, I hear some of you saying!!), motivated mainly from a desire to understand why, during our watch, the government was paying out so much compensation to the Maori in treaty settlements, I thought we won!!.  All the claims couldn't be valid, I would hear myself saying, and when was it going to stop!!

Well that little journey, aided by my wife and daughter, reading some New Zealand history papers at University, was an eye opener. I found out that we actually lost!!, and were having to pay some of it back, now I understand!!

So that is where I was at, when I discovered that my friend and I had a common link through the "Bolton".

What it did, was to motivate me to start reading, initially on the web, followed some links, picked up some books, gathered together some family photos and papers and very quickly began accumulating a wealth of information on all sorts of topics. Our family tree, who else came out and when, and what ships they arrived on. What it was like in Britain during the 1830’s both economically and politically, who were these Wakefield’s, were the missionaries really the good guys?. What was the attitude of the British government, were they only the nasty colonial imperialist, that I had been lead to believe, or did they also have a genuine concern for the Native New Zealanders. What was the role of the missionaries, particularly at the time of the treaty, is that where we all got “stuffed”, over a couple of days in February 1840? Was it true that 30% of the Auckland population in the 1860’s was made up of soldiers and their families, there to defend the town, and fight the Maori? What was the likely motivation of my great, great, great grandparent’s, in leaving their home in Cornwall and heading to this new land, what were they told, what were they sold? What was life like for them in Cornwall at the time, what was the voyage like on the "Bolton" and what did they encounter when they arrived on the beach at Port Nicholson. The list goes on and the resources grow.

So where does this blog fit in, I hear you saying.

Well it is a place to “chorale” all the information that I have been gathering, hopefully in an accessible, “user friendly” format. It’s a place to “tell the story”, of family, of early European, New Zealand and world events of the time, and how it fits together. I would love for my grandchildren, to have more understanding than I did about some of our past, so when they get to do the “social studies” thing, they will be able to identify with it in a more personal way and no doubt learn a lot more than I did.

So my blog is a vehicle, to help explain some of how our family got here and maybe to give a little challenge to those who read it, so how did you get here then?