MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1938, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

A FAILURE MADE SUCCESS. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.’l) The plan for a “Canterbury Community” was ready in 1843. Its site was to have been the Wairarapa Valley; but the Maori war postponed it four years. In 1847 Cardinal Newman’s defection caused a panic among the promoters. Gibbon Wakefield and J. R. Godly used that excitement as a plea for new freedom in virgin soil, and obtained a charter from the Queen. The Association was quaintly described as consisting of an Archbishop, Bishop, Noblemen, clergymen, “and gentlemen.” They purchased 20,000 acres in the South Island from the N.Z. Company for £lO,OOO and sold it to the chosen pilgrims at a profit of £40,000, of which sum £20,000 was to be spent on churches and colleges, £lO,OOO on immigration, and £lO,OOO on roads. By the end of 1851 no less than 2,500 emigrants were on the way. They were the cream of the working classes, led by 41 bishop, a lord, priests and deacons, doctors and lawyers. .A financier or a banker were conspicuously absent. Two and a half million acres were “acquired” on what the Maoris called the “Long Time” plan. . Much less was done for the settlers than promised. The New Zealand Land Company was not paid, the bishop designate returned to England, the lord fled to Sydney, J. R. Godley, the leader, went to England, where he became Under Secretary of State for War, and several of the clergy migrated to other districts. The original scheme failed, but the country prospered. Within four years, there were 5,000 settlers, 6,000 acres under crops, and £40,000 worth of wool was exported. The failed, but all the same, they founded one of New Zealand’s very best settlements.