FIRST NEW ZEALAND COMPANY

It is one of the minor enigmas of New Zealand history that so little is known of the origin and plans of the first New Zealand Company which was formed for the purpose of colonising this country. Its promoters were men of wealth and distinction and included such names as John George Lambton (later, Lord Durham), Colonel Torrens, Russell Ellice, Lord Hatherton, T. Marjoribanks, and G. Lyall. Twenty thousand pounds were raised to finance the preliminary scheme. According to a claim made many years later, the aim of the directors was to set up “agricultural and commercial” settlements at Hokianga and the Thames. Apparently the Colonial Office raised no objection to a purely commercial venture, though it was made clear that the Government was not pledged to give military assistance. The preliminary expedition, which was under the command of Captain Herd, consisted of the ship Rosanna and the cutter Lambton (Captain Barnett), along with some 60 artisans and mechanics. They reached Stewart Island on 25 March 1826 and spent a month there in general refitting, already uneasy at the thought of meeting the ferocious savages of the north. Their fears were justified, for when at length the expedition arrived at the Bay of Islands and Hokianga, the reception was so unpromising that they moved on to Sydney. Later, a few of the bolder spirits returned to Hokianga, where they engaged in shipbuilding. A tight money market in Britain thwarted the promoters' hopes of organising another expedition on a larger scale, and the Company dissolved. In the late thirties its land holdings at Hokianga and Kaipara were taken over by E. G. Wakefield's New Zealand Company. It is of interest to note that in 1837 a number of the old promoters submitted a plan for setting up, under the protection of the Crown, an “Independent Native Government” in New Zealand. There was to be an incorporated company invested by Royal charter, which would maintain a regular form of government over the islands, with the King as “Parent and Protector” of the infant state. But the proposal was too fanciful for serious consideration and the Colonial Office would have none of it.

SECOND NEW ZEALAND COMPANY

The Association

The genesis of the New Zealand Company is to be found in the New Zealand Association, which took shape in the spring of 1837 as a practical expression of Wakefield's challenging theories concerning emigration and colonisation. The Committee of the Association was a strong one and among its members were Francis Baring, Lord Durham, Lord Petre, W. B. Baring, Rev. S. Hinds, B. Hawes, W. Hutt, Sir W. Molesworth, and H. G. Ward-names which are now a part of our own nomenclature. The Association comprised two classes of members: first, prospective settlers, and, secondly, public-spirited men who were willing to lend their support to the venture, on the clear understanding, as Lord Durham put it, that they would “neither run any pecuniary risk, nor reap any pecuniary advantage from the undertaking”. Despite these disinterested motives, the Association faced bitter opposition from the powerful missionary societies when its prospectus was made public in the summer of 1837. The Colonial Office lent a willing ear to their protests and the Association was forced to appeal to Parliament in June 1838, knowing full well that it could not count on Government support. The Bill did not survive the second reading. It was expecting too much of Parliament to grant the Association's “board of commissioners” powers of self-government in a country which – so ran the debate – “was as independent of Great Britain as France or any of the nations of Europe”. In the face of official obduracy, one course only was left to the Association – to reconstitute itself as the New Zealand Colonisation Company which would function on the joint stock principle.

Formation of the Company

On the dissolution of the Association, therefore, some of its members formed the New Zealand Colonisation Company which took shape on 29 August 1838. The project gradually gathered support, with the result that in the spring of 1839 sufficient funds had been raised for fitting out an expedition for making land purchases in New Zealand and preparing for the early arrival of the first emigrants. The reaction of the Colonial Office was anything but cordial, for plans for the establishment of British sovereignty in New Zealand were already well advanced. But the Company held to its course and, in May 1839, took the bold step of dispatching the Tory to New Zealand under the charge of its principal agent, Colonel William Wakefield. In one respect the Company was in a strong position. It had a nominal capital of £400,000, in 4,000 shares of £100 each, and among its membership were many men of influence and talent.

With the arrival of the Tory in New Zealand in August 1839, Colonel Wakefield at once began negotiations with the Maoris for the purchase of land in the Port Nicholson (Wellington) district. Four months later, on 22 January 1840, the Company's first emigrant ship, the Aurora, arrived, and before long the town of Wellington came into being. Unfortunately the Company was soon at loggerheads with the British administration at the Bay of Islands, where Captain William Hobson, following the Treaty of Waitangi of 6 February 1840, had set up his Government. At once the Company's land claims, which amounted to 20 million acres, were in jeopardy, for the treaty expressly gave to the Crown the exclusive right of pre-emption over lands alienated by the natives. When, later in the year, Hobson decided to move his capital to Auckland, on the Waitemata, the Company's settlers in the south were openly resentful and did their utmost to undermine confidence in the Hobson and, later, the FitzRoy administrations.

The Charter

Meanwhile in London the Colonial Office and the Company had at last come to terms, in large measure through the attitude of Lord John Russell who in October 1840 decided to recognise the Company as an instrument of government in the colonisation of New Zealand. It therefore received a charter of incorporation and a generous land title and was formally incorporated on 12 February 1841. For its part the Company had to disclose its expenditure on the purchase of native land, on the dispatch of emigrants, and on surveying, public works, and the like. For every pound it expended the Company was to be entitled to four acres of land. Heartened by this official volte face, the directors proceeded with plans to extend their field of operations, and to that end they renewed their propaganda. They could always count on the support of such London magazines as the Colonial Gazette and The Spectator. Moreover, on 8 February 1840, there had appeared the first number of the New Zealand Journal, which, though claiming to be independent, received financial aid from the Company and worked hard on its behalf. In an effort to stimulate interest in its projects the Company endeavoured to form subsidiary companies in Scotland and England. Only one, at Plymouth, took shape. It was absorbed by the parent company early in 1841, but it did establish a successful settlement at New Plymouth, Taranaki, the first settlers arriving there on 19 November 1841.

At this juncture the Company's main concern was with its Nelson settlement. The Company, through its agent, Captain Arthur Wakefield, was anxious to found the settlement at Port Cooper (Lyttelton), on the east coast of the South Island. But Hobson decided in favour of the Nelson site, which had the advantages of being in the Cook Strait area and of having good land in the Waimea, Moutere, and Motueka Valleys. But as there was insufficient available to meet the demands of the new settlement, the Nelson settlers turned their attention to the Wairau, a potentially rich farming district. The Company claimed it by right of purchase, though this was stoutly denied by the redoubtable chiefs Rauparaha and Rangihaeata. Exasperated by the delay and determined if possible to force the issue, Captain Wakefield and a band of Nelson settlers clashed with the natives on 17 June 1843, when 22 Europeans, including Wakefield, were killed. The “Massacre” was a serious blow to the Company; immigration fell away and its financial position deteriorated. In New Zealand the Cook Strait settlers demanded Government action against the chiefs, but Captain Robert FitzRoy, Hobson's successor, refused to punish the chiefs and, indeed, publicly castigated the settlers for precipitating a crisis by their folly. The Nelson settlers never forgave FitzRoy for his “cowardice” and from 1844 onwards, led by the talented Alfred Domett, they attacked the administration and its policy of “rewarding outrage by concession”. But their main grievance was directed against the Treaty of Waitangi, which confirmed the Maori title to the soil of New Zealand. They argued that, unless this agreement were annulled, the New Zealand situation and the Company's prospects would remain in a parlous state. The Company was certainly in a bad way and in February 1844 turned to the Government for help. In the following April things took a more favourable turn when a select committee of the House of Commons, with Lord Howick (later, the third Earl Grey) as chairman, investigated the Company's grievances. The report of July 1844 reviewed most critically the policy of the Colonial Office towards New Zealand. Moreover, it supported the Company in its land claims and made no secret of its dislike for the manner whereby the Crown had established its sovereignty over the country. The report, however, had little practical value, for its hostility to the Treaty of Waitangi had aroused the humanitarians en masse, and Lord Stanley, Secretary of State at the Colonial Office, indignantly repudiated the Company's assertion that the treaty was merely a praiseworthy device for amusing and pacifying savages. “You will honourably and scrupulously fulfil the conditions of the Treaty of Waitangi” was his firm direction to Governor Grey.

The Last Phase

By mid-1845 the Company, some £60,000 in debt, was again looking to the Government for a land grant and loan. In the following year, when Earl Grey became Colonial Secretary, the directors once more set out a case, which was well received. In addition to the £100,000 already promised by Stanley, the Government was prepared to advance a further sum to cover the Company's liabilities and to meet all colonising expenses for three years, on conditions which were most favourable to the directors. When, moreover, the Government piloted through Parliament a constitution Act in 1846, which was to establish representative institutions in New Zealand, the Company became in effect what it had long aspired to be, an instrument of government in the colonisation of the country. It was with renewed hope, therefore, that the Company resumed operations. But the drive of its earlier proceedings had moderated by 1847 and little of the former energy remained. Instead, there was a spirit of caution, which was shown by the solicitude of the directors for the interests of their shareholders. Dividends and salaries became of first importance and colonising schemes took second place. Furthermore, the purchase of land in New Zealand was no longer looked upon as a profitable form of investment, with the result that by the late forties the Company's prospects of success, always dubious, vanished completely. Nevertheless, in this last phase of its colonising activities, the Company could claim an indirect share in the success of two church-sponsored ventures, the Otago and the Canterbury settlements. The former was organised by the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland and its settlement took shape at Dunedin, Otago Harbour, in March 1848. Similarly, the Canterbury Association, which was strongly supported by leading members of the Church of England, founded its colony around Christchurch in December 1850.

It is interesting to note that in these settlements, as in those earlier, the Company's plans for expansion on the basis of large-scale agriculture failed to materialise. Sheep, and not grain, became the key to prosperity. With the foundation of these last settlements, it was realised by the directors that the Company's colonising work was coming to an end, unless, of course, the Government could provide further financial assistance. When this was not forthcoming the proprietors, on 4 July 1850, put an end to the Company's existence as a colonising body and surrendered its charters. By the terms of the agreement of 1847, the Crown came into possession of the Company's entire landed property in New Zealand, some 1,092,000 acres, for which it was bound to pay the sum of £268,000. This amount, which was to be a first charge on the land revenue of New Zealand, became a bitter issue between Company and settlers. Everything that the Company had done to promote the colonisation of New Zealand was soon forgotten by the colonists when they found that they had to accept the responsibility of indemnifying its shareholders. The Auckland settlers in particular were vehement in protest, for they owed nothing to the Company and its works. But even the Canterbury Association turned against the parent body, and the feeling soon prevailed that the Company's difficulties arose mainly from its own mismanagement. Few tears were therefore shed when the Company was finally dissolved in 1858.

VINDICATION

The Company has often been sharply criticised for its conduct of affairs, both in New Zealand and in England. It is true that the Wakefield plan of systematic colonisation proved impracticable in all the Company's settlements, that its agents were land hungry to the point of foolhardiness, and that too little regard was paid to the claims of Maori land rights. But it must never be forgotten that, in the first great phase of its colonising activity, from May 1839 to January 1843, the Company disposed of 244,619 acres of land for settlement; moreover, it dispatched to the colony 57 ships and 8,600 emigrants. Without Company propaganda and organisation it is doubtful whether these settlers, the majority of whom were of good stock and character, would ever have turned their attention to New Zealand. In this respect – the choice of settlers – the Company did well. Their grand object had been to create in a new country a balanced society, with men of capital to develop it and labourers to bring it into production. They believed it was possible to reproduce all that was good in the older society without its painful blemishes. In short, the Company's colonising theories were excellent; it was in practice that they fell down.

It is also important to remember that, in the years of its decline, the Company was able to perform another notable service for the colony. By means of powerful, if biased propaganda, the directors ventilated the grievances of the colonists in Parliament and out, and if their earlier strictures on the Hobson and FitzRoy administrations were unfair and prejudiced, they later atoned for this by the persistence of their attacks on colonial mis-government. No other colony had such compelling advocates. The New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852, with its very generous provisions for self-government, owes much in spirit to the efforts of the Company to convince the Colonial Office of the importance and justice of the colonists' demands.

by Alexander Hare McLintock, C.B.E., M.A., DIP.ED. (N.Z.), PH.D.(LOND.), Parliamentary Historian, Wellington.

• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958)
• The Colonisation of New Zealand, Marais, J. S. (1927)
• The New Zealand Bubble: the Wakefield Theory in Practice, Turnbull, R. M. (1959).