EARLY COLONISATION

Evening Star, Issue 22453, 25 September 1936, Page 3

EARLY COLONISATION

GERMAN EMIGRATION In tbe.cour.se of an address to members of the Historical Association last night Air F. A. Charlton dealt with the important part played by the German and Scandinavian races in the colonisation and early development of the Dominion. Dr Elder presided over the meeting. The German and Scandinavian traders who visited the Dominion during the early part of the nineteenth century were first referred to, and the speaker then went on to speak of the sealing activities carried on in the vicinity of Dusky Sound. He then went on to speak of the early German missionaries in Nelson, sent out by the North German Society and a missionary institute in Berlin, and the later Scandinavian settlements in the bush districts of Manawatu. Turning to scientists and explorers, Air Charlton referred particularly to Ferdinand von Hochstetter, who came out to New Zealand with an Austrian expedition, and who made an examination of certain coal seams discovered near Wellington. Julius von Haast was another scientist whose geological surveys of various parts of New Zealand in company with von Hochstetter were of great value to the Government

of the day. Von Hnast was sent out to the Dominion in 1858 by a firm of London shipowners to report on the suitability of German emigration to the colony, and he stayed for 17_ years. The first German colonists arrived as early as 1840, when six men landed at Akaroa, and later formed the, settlement now known as German Bay. These men, as well as later colonists, all became naturalised British subjects. In 1843 140 Germans and four missionaries settled in Nelson, and a second expedition of 48 families arrived on September 1, 1844. The publicity given to the endeavour to form military settlements in Taranaki during the Alaori Wars brought further popularity to the Dominion, while the gold rushes of the early ’sixties brought out many German settlers. Mr Charlton concluded his address by briefly tracing tbe history' of Scandinavian settlers in New Zealand, stating that their influence on national characteristics was greater than that of the Germans. On the whole, however, all made excellent colonists. On the motion of Dr Basil Howard, Air Charlton was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.