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Friday, September 3, 2010

Early European Settlement and The Missionaries

Before we are able to board the "Bolton" it is important to have a little understanding of the discovery of New Zealand and some of the impact of "pre 1840" european contact.

It is thought that the Maori migration from Hawaiiki and the Pacific Islands happened some 800 years ago.

It took the Europeans a further 300 years to discover New Zealand when the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, in his two ship expedition, sighted the West Coast of the South Island on the 13th December 1642, naming the country Nova Zeelandia.

On the 18th December at Golden Bay, he encountered two Maori Canoes and in the confrontation that took place one of Tasman's crew was killed, taken away and possibly eaten. Tasman named the area Murderers Bay, which it remained for some 200 years, when Nelson settlers renamed it Golden Bay.

Some 128 years later, the Englishman Captain James Cook made the first of his four visits to New Zealand, when "young Nick" sighted land in October 1769. During this visit he spent six months circumnavigating and mapping the country - "precise, comprehensive and consistent", according to one Cook scholar.

In the course of the four visits that Cook made, he spent a total of 328 days around the coastline of New Zealand. He bartered and traded with the Maori, introduced them to metals, and left vegetables, especially potatoes and turnips, that became part of their staple diet. He also introduced Maori to firepower in the form of cannons and muskets, although didn't leave them with any.

Cook's relations with the Maori were, on the whole, as cordial and as mutually respectful as he could make them. On the first two voyages, in particular, he had been determined to act as an 'enlightened' leader.

Cook was also responsible for transporting Maori, for the first time in probably 400 years, from New Zealand, back to the islands of Polynesia.

It wasn't long before the "secret was out" and the world became aware of the beauty of these Islands in the South Pacific and the resources that resided there.

During this period other European explorers were also visiting our shores including Frenchmen De Serville (1769), Marion du Fresne (1772) and D'Urville (1827) raising some concern in Britian that the French may make a claim for the country at some stage.

Enter the Whalers and Sealers

The first europeans to actually live in New Zealand were seamen who "jumped ship" from vessels out of Sydney, or convicts escaping from Australia, the "smart convicts" as they have been jokingly referred too, at least in New Zealand.
  
The whalers and sealers began visiting our shores from the early 1790's, setting up "stations" at strategic sites up and down the coast. Some of the more notable ones were located at Doubtful Sound, Kapiti Island and the Bay of Islands. The conditions to which the sealers were subject were harsh. They would often be dumped in inhospitiable coastlines and left to fend for themselves for months at a time. During the period 1806 to 1810, 250,000 seal skins alone where taken from the New Zealand coastline.

The whaling station at 'Kororareka', in the Bay of Islands, developed as a result of this trade and soon earned a very bad reputation. It was described as a community without laws and full of prostitution, and became known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific", despite the translation of its name being "How sweet is the penguin." European law had no influence and Māori law was seldom enforced within the town's area.

However, due to the abundance of safe harbours, the extensive trading taking place and the high population of Maori in the area, the Bay of Islands became New Zealand's first capital.

The impact of whaling peaked in the 1830's, making 'Kororareka' (Russell) the first major area for prolonged and intensive Maori - Pakeha interaction. In 1830 for example, as many as 30 ships were at anchor in the harbour with crews totally over 1,000, of whom 300 could be ashore at any one point in time. Charles Darwin, who was visiting the area in 1835, described it's English residents as "the very refuse of society".

Commercial activity on the "frontier" however prospered, and Maori turned out to be capable and competitive entrepreneurs, suppling the europeans with produce and harvest commodities such as vegetables, flax and timber on a large scale. In payment for the trade they received nails, blankets and muskets. 

The absence of any kind of government or laws, that allowed profits to go untaxed, also ensured a lack of planning and co-ordination in the development and protection of the country's natural resources, and control of the behaviour of the population.

The increase in shipping gave the Maori the opportunity to join crews and voyage over to Australia and in a number of case back to England. Successive governors of NSW encouraged Maori visits, sometimes for long periods of time. It was as a result of this sort of contact, that a number Maori requested the British authorities to come and sort out the significant problems that residents and visitors at Kororareka, in particular, were creating.

The Missionaries

The Rev Samuel Marsden, Chaplain to NSW, (1765-1838) was the driving force behind the establishment of Anglican mission stations in New Zealand in the early nineteenth century, preaching his first service on Christmas Day 1814. Marsden was born in England and based in NSW, and he was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). His work and that of his missionaries helped build up a relationship of trust with Maori chiefs, paving the way for the acceptance of an official Crown presence in New Zealand.

The mission had two main goals: Christianisation of the Maori people and the attempt to try and keep law and order among the European settlers.

Although not immune to moral blemish themselves, these men and women went to extraordinary lengths to bring Christianity and 'civilisation' to Maori. The early years were largely unsuccessful for missionaries in terms of saving souls, however as points of contact for trade as well as a source of new ideas and muskets, missionaries had a profound impact on many Maori communities. Their introduction of the written word and the development of a written Maori language represented a massive change. In 1819, a block of land in Kerikeri was purchased to set up a new Mission Station at Paihia.

Henry Williams (1792 - 1867) and his wife Marianne  (nee Coldham, see family connection a little later), arrived in New Zealand in 1823. Henry soon became the leader of the CMS and became one of the most influential people in New Zealand during the 1830s to 1850s.

He had a different approach to the missionary work than Marsden. Marsden's policy had been to teach useful skills as a preparation for evangelism. This approach had little success. Also, in order to obtain essential food, they had yielded to the pressure to trade in muskets, the item of barter in which Māori showed the greatest interest.

Henry concentrated on the salvation of souls and stopped the trade in muskets. The local Māori became resentful of been denied the muskets and stopped trading with the missionaries that caused great hardship until they could grow their own supply of crops.

Henry's brother William and family, arrived at Paihia on 25 March 1826 and spent the next eight years in charge of the mission school. As he had received some training as a philologist, one of his first tasks was to study the structure of the Maori language. In 1837 he published his translation of The New Testament and seven years later complied a Dictionary of the New Zealand Language (Maori) and a Concise Grammar.

The Williams brothers, particularly Henry, eventually became highly respected among Nga Puhi, and prevented inter tribal fighting on several occasions.

Missionary influence also put an end to slavery and cannibalism among Maori. The respect that Williams had gained with the Maori, over many years, put him in an incredibly influential position when it came to convincing the Maori Chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in Feburary 1840, but more of that later.

Through Williams and the CMS, the missionaries where consistently informing the British Government that they were not in favour of any form of colonization or settlements, as in their opinion, it would not be in the best interests of the Maori. They argued that any more settlers would only increase the problems already negatively affecting the country. 

As we will see later on Henry Williams had a huge impact on the Treaty of Waitangi and clearly influenced the Maori Chiefs in their decision to sign the Treaty. 

However the controversy didn't end there when he was later accused by Govneror Grey of being a “land-jobber”, based on some dodgy deals he had made with the Maori. Bishop Selwyn sided with Grey, and in 1849 the CMS dismiss Henry from service. (also see link below) He then went farming, but continued to minister and preach and 1854 he was reinstated to the CMS.

The French also had a major influence on the Catholic Church in New Zealand. The Pacific had been allocated by the Pope to French missionaries in 1829, and in 1835 the western portion including New Zealand was made a parish. Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier was sent out to head the mission, and arrived in the Hokianga in 1838. The first bishop of any denomination in New Zealand, he became the leading light of the Catholic Church for the next 30 years.

In an attempt to avoid to much infighting between the denominations, Williams and  Pompallier "divided up" the country with the Catholic's given the Western side and the Anglicians the East.

The Musket Wars

One of the more tragic effects of early european contact with the Maori was the introduction of the highly prized musket, initially as a means of trade. Between 1818 and the early 1830s an estimated 20,000 Maori were killed in what have been called the Musket Wars. Unlike the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s the Musket Wars were New Zealand-wide. Initiated by the rivalries between the northern iwi Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua, all of the tribes were soon trading to obtain muskets.

Maori had always fought rival kin groups. As one historian has observed, men fought for 'land, for resources, for women and for the sheer hell of it.’ Warfare was ‘an integral part of the Maori political system’ and a ‘legitimate cultural response to offences or crimes of any kind’. Conflict increased as the Maori population increased. The victors gained land and booty and increased their mana (status). The losers sometimes had to migrate to a less desirable, unpopulated area.

From 1815 Ngapuhi taua (war parties) armed with muskets wreaked havoc across the North Island, taking 'revenge' for any past conflict, however small. Their victims faced exile, death or slavery. Fighting escalated in 1821 when the Ngapuhi leader Hongi Hika acquired 300 muskets. Over the next few years he led huge musket armies against iwi (tribes) from Tamaki (Auckland) to Rotorua. Ngapuhi suffered heavy casualties, but their opponents were crushed despite retreating into fortress pa.

The British Response

During the 1830s, as we have already seen, New Zealand was being promoted by  Wakefield's "colonial reformers" as the "fittest in the world for colonization". So the topic of New Zealand was already engaging the attention of the Government. Fears were also entertained of French intervention, and 13 Maori chiefs had petitioned the British for protection.

NSW Governor Darling, who had juristicion for Britian's interests in New Zealand, suggested appointing a political agent to curb the conduct of visiting ships' crews and round up runaway convicts. Lord Goderich, Secretary of State, adopted Darling's idea and in 1833 offered the job to James Busby.

British intervention in New Zealand up to this stage was of the most cautious, frugal sort, involving no assertion of sovereignty and no cost to the Treasury. Lord Goderich had contemplated supporting Busby with a small body of troops, stationing a warship at New Zealand, and giving him magisterial powers, but none of these things was ever done. He became known as the "Man o' War without guns".

He was expected to exercise a moral influence over captains and crews, runaway convicts, beachcombers, settlers, traders, and cannibal Maoris, solely by virtue of his powers of personal persuasion and the dignity of his Vice-Consul's uniform.

In March 1834, Busby bought land at Waitangi, a mile or so north of Paihia and built his miniature residency. A month later (April 1834), the residency was attacked, Busby slightly wounded, and his store ransacked. The settlers angrily demanded that the outrage be punished; the missionaries intervened, but no redress was forthcoming.

When settlers complained of his inaction, he answered that his moral authority should not be put to the test of every petty squabble—“its strength, in a degree, consists in its non-exertion”.

Even the missionaries who had helped him in the early days became estranged, and for a time he was not on speaking terms with Henry Williams, though he attended his church at Paihia.

Declaration of Independence

Then in 1835 along came a Frenchman called, Baron de Thierry's who made the startling announcement that he was coming to New Zealand with ships, arms, property, and hundreds of followers to set up his own government and rescue the country from degradation.

To this "paper bombshell" Busby responded valiantly. Within 36 hours he called a meeting of 35 chiefs at Waitangi (28 October 1835), and persuaded them to repudiate de Thierry's land claims and sign a Declaration of Independence in the name of the Confederation of Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand. It stated that all sovereign power and authority in the land resided with the chiefs 'in their collective capacity', and formed the basis of the understanding of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, at least from the Maori perspective.

William Hobson makes a Visit

Busby complained sadly, and with some justification, that the Government did nothing for him—“The Governor's policy … has been concentrated upon one object … to get rid of me.” Matters grew worse in 1836. Disputes about land sales caused war between two powerful divisions of the northern Maoris. Busby's efforts at mediation were as fruitless as his appeals for armed assistance.

Captain William Hobson, on behalf of the British government, first visited New Zealand in 1837  and recommended establishing British authority by treaty and governing the European settlements. Busby criticised this proposal and was coldly informed that his services would cease on the arrival of Hobson as prospective Lieutenant-Governor which in fact wouldn't happen for another two years. 

So we now have a broad understanding of the political, social and cultural climate that lead up to Feburary 1840 and the signing of the Treaty of Waitanga, our nations flawed but founding document......

Source material and additional reading:


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