First Claimant to Throne of New Zealand

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 602, 2 March 1929, Page 17

First Claimant to Throne of New Zealand

A MAORI SUPPORTER.—Tamati Waka Nene, the fa,nous old chieftain, who always treated, the Baron de Thierry most courteously, although he could not forbear from naming him Ring Pukanoa—King Pretender.

-- I

E, Charles

Baron d e Thierry, Sovereign Chief of New Zealand aid King of the Island of Nukuh a v a, here b y an-

notince to our lawful subjects In New Zealand Thus did the first and last claimant to the Royal throne of New Zealand announce his arrival to his people. Little is known of the early life of Baron Charles Philip Hyppolytus de Thierry, who claimed to be the rightful king of New Zealand, save that an elderly friend of his childhood had been an intimate of Captain Cook. With this friend the youthful Baron de Thierry spent many long hours discussing the wonders of the Pacific and especially of New Zealand.

But, as he himself says in memoir, “My almost dormant sympathies were not effectually aroused urtil one of the earliest missionaries to New Zealand, Mr. Thomas Kendall, arrived at Cambridge in 1820.” At that time de Thierry must have been well on In his twenties. He had already been a member of the Portuguese diplomatic service and had served for a short time in an English cavalry regiment, the 23rd Lancers. He was the son of a French refugee who had fled from Paris at the outbreak of the revolution, and who had lived ever since in England, so that his son must have been English by birth, upbringing and probably by sentiment. It is interesting to note, however, that when he was in Sydney, on his way to New Zealand, he told the Rev. Samuel Marsden, “with some show of pride,” that he claimed descent from the French royal family, the Bourbons.

In 1820, then, he was at Queen’s College, Cambridge. In that year Thomas Kendall, one of the agents of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, brought to England the celebrated, and later infamous, Maori chief, Hongi, and a lesser chief, Waikato. Hongi and Waikato, during their stay, were the lions of society. They were presented to King George IV., received many gifts from him, and *ere treated as reigning sovereigns instead of petty chiefs. The real object of Kendall's visit, however, was the preparation of a Maori Grammar, in which work Professor Lee, of Cambridge, had volunteered to help him. It was while he and the two chiefs were at Cambridge that they met Baron de Thierry. Here the story becomes rather v ague for a time. All we know is that he Thierry expressed his interest in -New Zealand and spent many hours conversing with Hongi and Waikato. Te also expressed sorrow for the ttiserable condition of the inhabitants

of the country and desired to help them. Accordingly-, it is known, Kendall suggested that he should buy land in New- Zealand and found a colony-, and, after a great deal of persuasion, de Thierry agreed to the proposal. He handed about £l,lOO to Hongi and Kendall (Waikato seems to have been a nonentity) for which Kendall promised to purchase “all the land north of Auckland.” It is on record that de Thierry understood this to be the full purchase price.

Whether this was deliberate misrepresentation on Kendall’s part is doubtful, but later events would seem to indicate that it was. There is no doubt about Hongi. As soon as he reached Sydney, on his way home, he spent all his share of the money on muskets and ammunition with which to carry out his plans for the conquest of New Zealand.

A deed of sale was actually- drawn up on August 7, 1822. It was signed

on board the ship Providence, then in New Zealand w aters, by three chiefs, Mudi Wai, Patuone and Nene —Tamati Waka Nene —who later led the first Maori War. The deed was witnessed by the captain and first mate of the Providence, and by Thomas Kendall.

In the document the chiefs agreed to sell, not the whole of North Auckland, but 40,000 acres at “the source of the river Yokianga” in return for 36 English axes. This w-as accoi ding to the strict letter of the deed, which the chiefs themselves probably did not understand. Afterwards it was claimed that the axes were only a deposit on the purchase money. Whether Kendall knew this is doubtful, but it is

| back to France to enlist .friends in his 1 support. But they w-ere offended j because he had made his first over- | lures to England, so that finally-, in | 1826, he opened an office in London in j a last attempt to raise a colony. \ That also failed, and for eight years j he almost disappears. It is known i that he travelled much in America, w-andering from city to city-, always trying to get aid for his schemes and never meeting success. It is probable that during this period of futile wan-

certain that de Thierry understood it j to be the full price for the land. The deed reached de Thierry-, still i at Cambridge, in 1523, and before the j end of the year he had applied to the Earl of Bathurst, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, for official \ recognition of his intentions to colo-' nise New Zealand. A fortnight later he received a curt j note from an under-Secretary saying that New Zealand was not “a possession of the Crow-n.”

KING CHARLES OF NEW ZEALAND — Charles, Baron de Thierry, first and last white claimant to the Royal Throne of New Zealand, who boasted descent from the Bourbons.

De Thierry was never an unprincipled and rather foolish adventurer trying to set himself up as a king in a savage laud of which he knew nothing—as some of the modern New Zealand historians would have us believe him. That figure is entirely against contemporary evidence. He made repeated attempts to secure recognition from the British Government of his intention to found a colony on the usual lines, and he even opened an office in London to receive applications from intending colonists. Had the Crown already taken possession of New Zealand and had de Thierry possessed the ability of Gibbon Wakefield, there is little doubt that the Baron would have taken Wakefield's place in New Zealand history. But with New Zealand not annexed by Great Britain, no man, however brilliant, could have done much. It was on that stone that de Thierry fell. After the refusal of his claim for ’recognition in 1823 he suggested that the Government should lend eight or ten thousand pounds to help him establish his colony. He offered, as security for the loan, the title deed to the Hokianga purchase, and said that he would repay the loan in kauri spars, then much in demand for the navy. His proposal was refused, however, and he then turned to the French Government. Here, although exact information is again not available, he seems to have come near being successful and without doubt received some encouragement —the Comte de Mole, president of the Council of France, expressed his determination to make him French

Consul in New Zealand. But probably France was too much in fear of England, and the Government refused to do anything openly-. Then he made an attempt to get together a colony on his own initiative in London. That failed and he hurried

dering he first conceived the idea of calling himself King of New Zealand, and in 1834 we hear of him again at Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, with a little money in his pocket and the idea of a kingdom in his head. He sailed from Guadaloupe, walked across the Isthmus of Darien, near Panama, and then took ship again and sailed to Tahiti. There he w-as forced to abide for 22 long months before he could prevail upon a captain to take him to New Zealand.

The reason w-as this. In 1831 the first rumour of de Thierry's intentions of founding a colony in New Zealand reached the w-hite residents m the Bay

of Islands. Evidently they believed I that he was coming out under the pro-' tection of France, and made frantic appeals to Bourke, the Governor of New South Wales, for help. In the following year, therefore, James Busby, a civil engineer of Sydney with interests in New Zealand, was appointed British Resident at Kororareka, the only settlement of any size in the country, situated near w-here Russell now stands. The scare died dow-n after a few months, but when, at the beginning of 1535, de Thierry announced by.proclamation from Tahiti that he was com-

The Strange Story of the Baron de Thierry, “King of Nukuhava”, and His Claim to Sovereignty in North Auckland

(Written for THE SUN by L. IV. P. REEVES.)

ing to take possession of his kingdom, it was revived with redoubled vigour. Busby hastily convened the more important chiefs at Waitangi and persuaded them to sign a declaration of independence, repudiating all de Thierry’s royal claims. He also issued a proclamation to the white people of New Zealahd, calling on them to remain loyal and threatening de Thierry with armed resistance if he attempted to land. Copies of this proclamation he sent to de Thierry at Tahiti and to all sources of Government throughout the Eastern Pacific, so that de Thiery was, for a time, effectively checked.

During de Thierry’s enforced stay in Tahiti great interest in him and his pretensions w-as manifest all over the Southern Pacific. He had in Sydney an agent who must have been an ancestor of some modern American press agent. In the Sydney “Morning Herald” of the day this agent writes: “It is not the least remarkable feature of this long promised expedition (first projected in compliance with the repeated entreaties of the principal na-

tive chiefs) that the Baron has negotiated with the Government of New Granada for leave to cut a navigable canal through the Isthmus of Darien to unite the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic, thus bringing New Zealand within 80 days sail from England. He has also proposed to establish a regular line of packets to sail twice a month from Panama to New Zealand (and New Zealand to Panama) in communication with the British Colonies, to convey the mails from Europe and the United States by way of the Isth-

Surely an inspired and royal dream —if it ever had any foundation outside the agent’s imagination. Early in 1837, de Thierry at last

managed to get passage to Sydney, where he arrived, accompanied by his family and only two followers, on

July 30. He immediately visited Gov- | ernor Bourke and offered to give up : all pretensions to royalty if Bourke would guarantee him the protection of the British Government. Bourke, of course, was not in a position to do this and had unwillingly to refuse. A note in one of his dispatches to the Colonial Office is interesting: “I have not considered it my duty to interpose any obstacle to his (de Thierry’s) proceeding to New Zealand, of which

country he claims to be chief by right of purchase. He denies all intention of prejudicing the interests of Great Britain, and professes a reliance upon moral influence alone for the authority he expects to acquire.” But it was in Sydney that the first disappointment fell on de Thierry. He learned that Kendall, the missionary, had been drowned only a few days before his arrival and received broad hints that he had been swindled out of most of tbe £l,lOO he had given to him and Hongi. He still had the title deed to the land at Hokianga, however, and there was no reason to believe that it was not valid. So in Sydney he collected a retinue of 93 persons to bring to New Zealand. From contemporary accounts they would seem to have been the very refuse of Sydney—“of a very infamous description,” says one pedantic observer. Before he sailed he issued a final proclamation to the white people at Hokianga in which he greatly modifies his claims. “Believe me, residents of Hokianga,” lie says, "that I have not been unmind-

ful of your necessities. I go to govern within the bounds of my territory, it is true, but I go neither as an invader nor a despot. You w-ili find me a brother and a friend who will feel proud of your co-operation and advice in legislative matters, and who, without claiming an unwilling service from you, will preside over you as the guardian of your safety and prosperity.”

At sunrise on the morning of November 4, 1837, de Thierry’s ship crossed the Hokianga Bar and sailed up the river. The ships lying at anchor greeted him with a royal salute of 21 guns and, greatly cheered by this, he landed. On the sand he unfurled a silken flag and his aide-de-camp read aloud a proclamation announcing his arrival.

In the first flush of his supposed

j triumph he assumed the graces of an j emperor. His “subjects” were com- | manded to retire backward from his j presence and he offered to make an | admiral of the master of the ship j which had brought him to his king- ; dom. , ; But soon this comedy turned to . I tragedy. The natives, of course, re- ; pudiated de Thierry’s right to 40,000 i ! acres, claiming that the axes they had

received were only a deposit on the purchase money. Furthermore, they alleged that Kendall had paid them only 24 axes, not 36. and that these were inferior ones, having been made in New Zealand by an imported blacksmith. The whites laughed at him and treated him with scorn and insult. Presently, when provisions began to run short, most of his 93 followers turned on him and. for a moment, it seemed that de Thierry’s life was in danger. He armed himself and, with

"Never was obstacle placed in my way by Government," ho says, "nor did Captain Hobson first Governor of New Zealand), with whom I became acquainted at Sydney, endeavour in the least to damp my prospects. He stated to me that he was going to make a report which might, perhaps, induce the Government to act relatively to New Zealand, but that it was not in consequence of my proceed- | ings, for he could see nothing ob- : jectionable in them. In IS4O he became ; Governor of New Zealand and we were

his family, fled to a nearby hill that he had named Mount Isabel, in honour of his daughter.

friends until the time of his death. It is from the moment of his arrival that New Zealand comes under the head of a British Colony.” There is little doubt about the moral aspect of de Thierry’s claims. From his point of view they were unimpeachable. He had his deed of sale by which he received the land at Hokianga in return for 36 axes and he received no hint that it was not valid. Thirty-six axes may seem a small payment for 40,000 acres oi land but it must be remembered that almost 20 years later the New Zealand Company purchased nearly three million acres for less than £SO worth of trade goods. Of course, from the Maoris’ point of view the position was different. They claimed, with probable truth, that the axes had only been a deposit and implied that Kendall and Hongi had swindled de Thierry out of most of the purchase money. Certainly, according to Maori tribal law the three chiefs who signed the deed of sale had not the right to dispose of the land. But that was something de Thierry could not possibly have known. From the constitutional aspect, he was again in the right. Two separate acts relating to the control of British colonies w-ere passed in Kngland. one in 1823 and one in 1828. Both implicitly disavowed British Sovereignty over New Zealand and the act of 182 S

But food was found for his hungry retinue and the danger passed. De Thierry descended from his retreat and opened negotiations. Of the three chiefs who had signed the deed of sale 15 years before, Mudi Wai and Patuone were dead and only Tamati Waka Nene was left. He and his people treated the baron most courteously and kindly, although they could not forbear from naming him King Pukanoa —King Pretender —and, after a few days, Nene presented him with 5,000 acres of land round Mount Isabel in consideration of the 24 axes received so many years before. To Mount Isabel, then, the dethroned king retired, “leaving,” as he says in his memoir, “the baser material of the expedition to the contempt

of the world.” —a contempt they seem to have earned fairly thoroughly. Two years later Colonel Wakefield, brother to Gibbon Wakefield, while inspecting the country in preparation for the foundation of the New Zealand Company, found him still there and still issuing, at intervals, abortive pro f clamations to his “faithful subjects.” Wakefield agreed with him that he

had been ill-used and remarked afterwards that he found him an interesting conversationalist. After that meeting the baron fades into obscurity. A de Thierry and four others were, in 1850, accidentally marooned for five weeks on Pitca:rn island, but it is probable that this was his son. Baron Charles de Thierry became a music teacher in Auckland and now lies buried in tbe Symouds Street cemetery. His descendants still live in the city. It is difficult to determine the effect that this unlucky venture had on the history- of New Zealand. De Thierry s | name and his expedition were menI tioned several times in the evidence given before a select committee of the I House of Lords appointed in IS3S to dc-ffie whether the Crown should annexe New Zealand. It is possible that ; the fact that the expedition was led by a Frenchman encouraged the com mittee to fear French aggression in the Pacific. This may or may not ! have been so, although de Thierry ; himself did not think it.

i said explicitly, "New Zealand is not . i subject to his Majesty.” ! There was really little else for de Thierry to do save to proclaim liim- > self king of his territory. He had no r financial backing for the foundation . of his colony and, if it had been founded, any nation in the world would have been free to step in and annex 5 it. regardless of his rights. Without r Great Britain's protection Gibbon ] Wakefield could never have founded , the New Zealand Company, so that it 3 was no wonder that de Thierry failed. 3 Perhaps he went too far in his royal i claims remember, he had beeu t j trained at the Portugese court and bep | lieved in all the ritual of European _ j diplomacy but certainly his claims s j had more than a shadow of right in i- ; them—he was only beaten by circurne I stances. e ; There is no headstone on the grave j in the Symonds Street cemetery. The ° S plot of ground is untidy and a ragged t- i bush grows over the dust of the man t ! who might have been New Zealand's I king. Not 20 yards away is the tomb I of Governor Hobson, the symbol of the j power which first denied de Thierry n a chance and which later destroyed >t i the chance he had made for himself, y ' All round are the graves of the colon- ! ists who made New Zealand