HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1939, Page 5

HUNDRED YEARS AGO

FIRST NEW ZEALAND COMPANY

VENTURE THAT FAILED.

FORGOTTEN ENTERPRISE RECALLED.

One hundred years ago on February 12, 1839, the “incurably somnolent’’ Colonial Secretary, Lord Glenelg, was proving himself awake to the necessity of doing something about New Zealand. He wrote a minute to the British Cabinet on that date proposing to negotiate for the sovereignty of certain portions of New Zealand “where the British are already settled." In the end the British Government went much further. But the mention of the country which was already settled by British subjects conjures up the the image of the whole motley crew of rapscallions, traders and whalers who had, according to their lights, colonis-

ed these islands. More respectable agencies had, however, played a part in the settlement of New Zealand. Apart from the missionary bodies, there was the first New Zealand Company, that of 1825, soon to be overshadowed by its more famous successor, the New Zealand Company of Wakefield vintage, which founded Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Christchurch and Dunedin.

EXPEDITION EQUIPPED. The first New Zealand Company was founded in 1825 as a fruit of the growing knowledge of these islands in the outside world. The bad advertisement of the massacre of the crew of the Boyd in 1809 had worn off; a Christian mission had been successfully established; the country was rich in timber —relatively much more important in the days before iron ships —and in flax from which might be manufactured rope and canvas for sails. A group of gentlemen, among whom George Lambton. afterwards Earl of Durham, was the most prominent, began to pester the government of the day for a charter. After refusing any promise of mililarj’ assistance and authorising a strictly commercial establishment, the government granted the company a.limited charter. This was a sure enough foundation for Lambton and his associates, Messrs Littelton. Lyall, Marjoribanks, Palmer and Torrens, to spend £20,000 on the equipment of an expedition. ISLANDS PURCHASED.

Captain James Herd sailed in 1826 in command of the barque Rosanna. With it sailed the cutter Lambton commanded by Captain T. Barnett. They had on board a party of about sixty ship-car-penters, sawyers, blacksmiths and flaxdressers and a Mr Shepherd, who had lived in New’Zealand. Herd had himself visited New Zealand twice before 1826. The Rosanna and the Lambton made a fairly extended journey round the coasts before halting at the head of the Gulf of Thame:-', to buy land. Herd spent six weeks at Port Pegasus, Stewart Island, charting the harbour and getting his firearms in order in case of trouble with the Maoris. He did some more charting in Otago Harbour and Port Underwood, and both he and Captain Barnett made surveys of Port Nicholson. There is a suggestion that Herd may actually have named the harbour, after a sea captain who was harbour master at Sydney. Then on September 23, 1826, Captain Herd bought for his employers four islands at the head of Ihe Gulf of Thames, Pakatoa, Rptoroa, Ponui (Chamberlin’s Island) and Pahiki. The price paid for these islands and their valuable kauri forests consisted of one double-barrell-ed gun, eight muskets, 'and one barrel of gunpowder. Thomas Kendall acted as interpreter in this transaction, and three of the ship’s party, Thomas Shepherd, K. Bell and Luther Leihmere were witnesses. The picturesque deed of sale bears on its back a recognisable chart of the islands sold, and the signatures of the nine chiefs selling the land are the traditional mokos.

IMMIGRANTS FRIGHTENED. Herd and his party had a rude shock awaiting them. The Maoris celebrated the deal with a haka of welcome. Like the natives of Tahiti on a similar occasion, the white spectators were exceedingly alarmed. Evidently Ponui was no place tor them. They prevailed on Captain Herd to weight anchor and search for pasture’s new. He made his way to the better-known timber district of Hokianga. Again Herd bought land. On January 26, 1827, he acquired in exchange for five muskets, fiftythree pounds of powder, four pairs of blankets, three hundred flints and four musket cartridge boxes, the extensive peninsula between the Omanaia and Waima Rivers, tributaries of the Hokianga, and a considerable tract inland between these rivers. On this peninsula stands the modern town of Rawene.

Exactly why this new purchase was unsatisfactory is not clear. However, the upshot was the same. Herd and his party sailed away to Sydney. There the Lambton was sold, and the Rosanna landed any of the carpenters and smiths who wished to remain, before securing a cargo to England. A good number did in fact go back to New Zealand, proving they had more courage than their masters. One cannot altogether acquit Herd of want of firmness, a charge made against him by the Chevalier Dillon, who knew New Zealand well. Dillon further attributed the miserable failure of the company to the undue influence and patronage that were ever the downfall of companies run by gentlemen, as opposed to practical men. Herd, at least, collected information of value to seamen. The small amount of settlement that did result from this abortive enterprise was due to steadfastness of the sturdy Scotch carpenters who dared to return to brave the terrors of living among the Maoris. At least twenty of the men must have afterwards earned a living exploiting the incomparable timber resources of northern New Zealand. They are heard of constantly at Hokianga and the Bay of Islands. They conducted their own saw-pits and sold off. the produce to visiting ships. They habitually paid their debts in planks, at the rate of 8s per 100 feet of one inch by eleven inch timber.

The land the Company had bought on the Hokianga, dubbed Herd’s Point, was recognised by the local Maoris as the Company's property for years afterwards. This stood the share-holders in good stead when they sold their purchases. after prolonged negotiation, to the New Zealand Company of 1839, receiving payment in shares in the new company. The old New Zealand Company was known at the time as “Lord Durham’s Company," commemorating the name of the statesman who was the Chairman of both. It could hardly be characterised as an enterprise of much spirit, yet it served to make New Zea-

land better known in England. In fact, but for the slump in the money market in 1827, it is possible the promoters might have ventured again with a less cautious commander. Unlike the later Ne\v Zealand Company, this first bodywas intended as a trading venture rather than a farming colony.