"HISTORICALLY INCORRECT"

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 230, 29 September 1926, Page 3

"HISTORICALLY INCORRECT"

SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE SOUTH ISLAND. PROCLAMATION NOT MADE AT AKAROA. INSCRIPTION ON BRITOMART MEMORIAL WRONG. (jChristchurcli Sun's Wellington Representati ve) . • Long ago the old story that a Britisli warship and a French vessel raced to Akaroa to gain possession of Banks Peninsula was shown to be but a legend. Now nnother tale, that British sovereignty over the South Island wa® proolaimed first. at Akaroa , is being demolishcd. On the Estimates for 1925-26 the sum of £100 was placed for the pur(po.se of purchasing the land surrounding the Britomart Memorial at Akaroa. It appears that the owner of the land had demanded payment or the removal of the monument. The sanie sum appears again in this year's Estimates. On inquiry The Sun representative was informed that legal difficulties had come in the way last year. These were now overcome and the amount votec/ would be exnended in the nnrcbfise

A,nother complication has novl been presented to the Minister of Lands (Hon. A. D. AlcLcod). Mr T. Lindsay Buick raises an issue as to the historical accuracy of tlie inscription on the monument. Mr Buick's point :is that it is a popular fallacy to suppose that the sbvereignty of Great J3ritain over the South Island was proclaimed at Akaroa. This liistoric event, it is held, took place at Cloudy Bay, Marlborough, on Ftorohoro-Kakahu Island . All that Captain Stanley did at Akaroa was to assert British authoritv . Lindsay Buick's submission, addressed to the Minister of Lands, is a ehapter -of early history that will be read witli great interest by Canterbnry people. "t understand that your department contemplates the payment of a sum of £100 towards the purchatse of the site at Akaroa whereon stands what is known as the Britomart Memorial. "The inscription on this memorial sets out that it marks the spot upon which Captain Standley, of H.M.S. Britomart, on August 11, 1840, formally proclaimed British sovereignty over the South Island of New Zealand. The insc-ription referred to is as follows : On this Spofc Captain Stanley, R.N. of H.M.S. Britomart, Hoisted ihe British Flag, and the Sovereignty of Great Britain was formallv nroelaimed, August 11th, 1840. "This statement, I submit, is historicallv incorrect, and I suggest

that ihe Government should not expend public money on any object or for any purpose which will' put the imprimatur of the State upon an hi-s-torical in accuracy. "The facts in connection with the proclaination of British Sovereignty over the South Island of New ZeaJand are elearly set oht in the Blue Books of the Dominion, but briefiy they may l>o stated as follow:— "On April 28, 1840, Captain Hobdon, •Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, commissioned Alajor Bunbury, of the 89th Regiment, to proceed in H.M.S. Heraid to> the South Island, to procure the signatures of the nativ© chiefs to the Treaty of Waitangi, whieh as tlie representative of her Majesty Queen Victoria, hle was negotiating with the native ; race. , "On June 17 following, the Heraid had arrived from the southern port(s at Cloudy Bay, and by this timo Ma, (or Bunbury had so far succeeded in his migsion, that, after consultation with Captain Nias, of; the Heraid, he deeided tliat there and then was the opportunity to declare over ihe South Island the sovereignty which the native chiefs; had oeded to Queen Victoria under the treatv thev had sisned.

"The proelamation was accordingly read with due ceremony at the Maori pa on Horohoro-Kakahu Island, and the terms of that proelamation are fully set out by Major Bunbury m his reporfc to Captain Hobson, subsequently pubilished in the Blue Books. "The proceedings of Major Bunbury at Cloudv Bay were in accordance with international law in relation to the aequisition of torritoi-y, and were subsequently acknowledged to be so by foreign authorities, and particularly by M. Guizot, the French Foreign Minister, who, during a debate in the Chaniber of Deputies, maintained, in the face of the sli ai'pest opposition, that the British proelamation read at Cloudy Bay ■'determined, by the highest principles known to nations, in whom the right of sovereignty lay.' "I, therefore, maintaip that, as from June 17, 1840, the question of British sovereignty over the South Island was definitely settled and put beyond the region of doubt.

A series or events tnen roiJowed whicn, unfortunately, have been misunderstood, and which have served to cloud the position. At midnight on July 10, the French corvette L'Aitbe sailed into th© Bay of Islands, six days after Major Bunbury had returned to the seat of Government and had reported his proceedings to the Lieutenant-Governor. The purpose of Li'Aube was to con'voy the Comte de Paris, a veissel which was bringing a colony of French people who proposed to settle at Akaroa, and there to lioist the French flag. Her commander. Captain Lavaud, waited upon Captain Hobson, and in

consequence of what passed between them the Lieutenant-Governor ordered Captain Owen Stanley, oi H.M.S. Britomart, to sail at once for Akaroa, not to proclaim sovereignty, but to unequivocally exercis© British authority and to open courts. In tlie course of his instructiops to. Captain Stanley the Lieutena nt- Governor wro te : You will perceive by the enclosed copy of Major Bunbury's declaration , that, independent of the assumption of sovereignty of the Middle and Southern Islands, as announoed by my proelamation of May 21 last, the principal chiefs have ceded their rights to/ her Majesty, through that officer, who wa® fully authorised to treat with them for that purpose. It will not, therefore, be necessary for you to adopt any further prooeedings. It will, however, be advisable that some eivil authoritv should be exercised on the islands, and for that purpose ihe magistrates who aeeompany you will ho instrueted to hold a court on their arrival at each port, and Lo have a rooord of their proceedings registered and transmitted to me.' "Captain Stanley reached Akaroa on August 10, and what he did js set out in detail, in his report to the Lieutentnt-Go vernon, dated from 'his ship on September 17, 1840. He said : 'On August 11th I kvnded, accompanied by Messfs Murphy and Robinson, police magistrates, and visit-

ed tne only two parts of the bay where there were houses. At both places the flag was hoisted , and a eourt, of which notioe had been given the da.y before, was held by the magistrates.' "There is her© no reference to a iproolamation .of sovereignty being read, and tliere is no reference to sueh a proceeding in the 'ship's log. Nor, indeed, was any proelamation read, because there was no such idir'ection in Captain Stanley 's instructions, which were to texercise British authority' and to open courts. So far from a proelamation of sovereignty being ordered, Captain Hobson maka® it clear that, in view of Majoy Bunbury's prooeedings, such a course would not be necessary, and that all that was requisite was the performand© of 'some act oi civil authority.' "TQ is therefore, obvious tliat the ac.tuai sovereignty over the South Island was deelared at Cloudy Bav on June 17, 1840, and not ,at A kaeo; wl on August JL1, 1840, as alleged by the inscription on tlie monument. Captain Hodson's precaui ions in sending a warship and magistrates to Akaroa could not liave made the British title more seeure tlian it already wa®. The Treaty of "Waitangi was a compaet such as no civilised nation could or would ignore, and when Major Bunbury, by virtue of tliat treaty, hoisted tlie British flag at Cloudy Bay, be put the sovereignty of tlie South Island beyond all question or doubt untif it could we wrested from Great Britain bv force of arms.

"The most that can be said for tlie hasty dispatch of the Britomart to Akaroa, and th© prooeedings oi lier captain and his assocmtee there, is that the presence of British authority on Banks Peninsula may have prevented the growth of any false ideas oonqerning national interests in ihe minds of tlie immigrants, and Ifco obv'iated possible. friction at a later date. In no sense did the proceedings. of the British officers give anew to Great Britain a right (that had already been oeded to her by the only people who were capahle of ceding it — native, s. "It iis ira© that British sovereignty was confirmed and asserted in Akaroa, and in that sense tlie monument has its value, but that is not what the inscription of the monument allegqs, and I maintain : (1) That the Government should not expend public money in cionneetion with this monument until its inscription lias been brought intoi harmony with the facts, or alternatively, (2) tliat when tlie Government has purcha'sed tho site that the inseription should be amended to eonform to the facts as set out in ihe public documents of tlie 'Dominion." Tlies Minister oi' Lands does not question the accuracy of Mr Lindsay Buick's data. in view, however, of the historical importance of the iissue raised in the letter, the Minister has asked for an expression of opinion from the New Zealand Historical Association. Should the submission of Mr Lindsay Buick be correct, there arises th© further question of the accuracy of the inscription on tho baptismal f'ont in Christchurch CatlicdraL This handsonie font was presented to the

Catliedral by Dean Stanley, of Wrestminster Ahbey, to com memor ate tlie part taken by liis brother, -Captain Stanley, of the Britoniart, in the incidents at Akaroa. Tlie inscription reads : — - To th© memory of CAPTAIN OWEN STANLEY, R.N., Bv wliose enterprise, A.O. 1840, This island wa® secured to the British Einipire. Tliis font was ©rected A.D. 1881 by his brother, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westm i nster . Blest hour, in Akaroa Bay, When England's flag first won the way, On these bright shorcs for British youth, To grow in Ohristian graco and truth. O'er Church and home, o'er fell and flood , The fount and origin of good. What the historians now say is that accuracy should be insisted upon in n cathedral labove all places.