Abel Tasman’s voyage in 1642 aroused French interest in the South Seas, and by the 18th century French explorers were eager to seek out scientific knowledge, trading opportunities and a possible colony in New Zealand.
The first French arrival was Captain Jean François Marie de Surville, who brought the St Jean Baptiste on a trading expedition in 1769. His first sighting of New Zealand was of the Hokianga; from there he sailed around North Cape to Doubtless Bay, but he eventually left under a shadow of misunderstanding with Māori in the area.
Captain Jean François Marie de Surville, an early French trader, initially got on well with Māori at Doubtless Bay. But the relationship turned sour when, having wrongly accused them of stealing his ship’s boat, he then burnt houses and captured a chief, Ranginui. When de Surville sailed for Peru, he took Ranginui with him. Although the chief was treated well, he died of scurvy the following year.
In March 1772 Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne sailed the Mascarin into the Bay of Islands. His party made scientific observations, and traded and socialised with Māori. A few weeks later, however, Marion du Fresne and others were murdered. There are several theories to explain what the French did to anger Māori; one suggests that they fished in sacred waters. Whatever the real reason, Māori distrust of ‘the tribe of Marion’ remained for years.
The first truly scientific expedition was led by Louis Isidore Duperrey on the Coquille, which reached the Bay of Islands in April 1824. Duperrey surveyed the bay, met the Māori chief Hongi Hika, and later published his observations.
Also on board was Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville, who led a second expedition in 1827. From the West Coast of the South Island he sailed towards Cook Strait, naming French Pass, D’Urville Island and the Croisilles Harbour. He visited for a third time in 1840. Like other French explorers, Dumont d’Urville made a major contribution to the scientific knowledge of New Zealand.
French whalers appeared in the 1830s, mostly working off Banks Peninsula until the 1840s. Some eventually settled.
The voyages of Tasman and others had inspired French writers from as early as 1681. Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas the elder and Jules Verne subsequently drew on accounts of New Zealand contact.
The explorer Dumont d’Urville wrote what is arguably New Zealand’s first novel. Les Zélandais: histoire australienne is based on his encounters with Māori in 1824. Set in Northland, it relates the fortunes of the people of Tiami and their chief. Dumont d’Urville depicts them sympathetically, their culture about to be changed dramatically by the arrival of Europeans.
The French had a major influence on the Catholic Church in New Zealand. The Pacific had been allocated by the Pope to French missionaries in 1829, and in 1835 the western portion including New Zealand was made a parish. Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier was sent out to head the mission, and arrived in the Hokianga in 1838. The first bishop of any denomination in New Zealand, he became the leading light of the Catholic Church for the next 30 years.
Pompallier and his missionaries from the order of the Society of Mary (Marists) faced poverty, hardship, opposition from Protestant missionaries, and hostile Māori who distrusted the French. But they quickly learned English and Māori, and in 10 years 5,000 people were baptised. Mission stations were established from north Auckland to Akaroa.
For Māori, becoming Catholic was a gesture of dissatisfaction with Protestant missionaries and the British Crown. But Catholicism did not remain associated with protest for long. During the New Zealand wars in the mid-1800s, Pompallier sided with the government. He abandoned the Māori mission, and in the 1860s condemned the indigenous Pai Mārire religious movement. The new focus of the Catholic Church was to minister to the country’s Europeans.
The gold rushes of the 1860s and 1870s took the priests to Southland, to work with the mining communities. French Marists were a significant part of the clergy in Wellington and Canterbury until around 1885, and remained until the 1930s. They made a substantial contribution to Catholic education.
The missionaries, and later the Sisters of Mercy, accomplished groundbreaking welfare work with Māori and Pākehā. As well as churches and chapels, they built schools, hospitals and orphanages. The most well-known missionary was Suzanne Aubert, who arrived in 1860 and founded the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion.
Today, there are at least 11 Catholic orders which maintain their contact with France.
France’s true intentions for the South Island are a matter of contention, but it is clear that French interest speeded up Britain’s decision to annex New Zealand.
In 1838 Jean François Langlois, commander of the whaling ship Cachalot, embarked on a grandiose scheme for a French colony at Akaroa. After a dubious land purchase from Māori he established the Nanto-Bordelaise Company in France to carry out the project. In 1839 King Louis-Philippe agreed to provide assistance.
The French representative for the settlement, Captain Charles François Lavaud, sailed for New Zealand in April 1840. A month later, the Comte de Paris set off for Akaroa carrying 53 emigrants.
Still smarting from the missed opportunity to colonise Akaroa, the region’s French governor wistfully observed its advantages:
‘The wheat seems better than in France. All the vegetables are growing well. It is truly regrettable that we arrived here after the British.’ 1
The French scheme sparked debate in England and France. Bowing to pressure to colonise the country, the British government sent out William Hobson in 1839. He signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840, and claimed sovereignty over the South Island on 17 June.
When Lavaud reached the Bay of Islands in July, he learned that New Zealand had already become British. Hobson was friendly, but sent the Britomart to observe the French in Akaroa. Lavaud accepted that France could not create a colony without causing hostility. When the Comte de Paris arrived in August, the Union Jack was flying over Akaroa.
The French colonists flourished briefly, enjoying trade with the whaling ships. In 1843 they numbered 69, intermingling with 86 British as well as Māori and a few Germans. At first life was tough, but they replaced the original tents with houses, and began to grow fruit and vegetables. The French navy built roads, bridges and wharves, and French priests taught the children. Shops, hotels, bakeries, and cafés opened. The British government eventually granted the settlers official ownership of land. Lavaud administered French law, although the settlers lived under British rule. By the mid-1840s there was a decline in whaling, and the French navy left in the early 1850s. Most settlers stayed and became naturalised, but numbers were always small. Today, some architecture, the cemetery, and names such as Rue Balguerie and Rue Benoit, French Farm and Duvauchelle, along with thousands of descendants, are testament to the original colonists.
After Akaroa there were very few French immigrants. Some came in search of gold, and a few arrived in the 1870s as assisted immigrants. Numbers peaked at 848 in 1881, and did not increase for almost 100 years.
Between 1991 and 2006 the number of French-born residents almost tripled, from 858 to 2,475. The reciprocal extended-stay visas offered from 1999 brought more young travellers, who enjoyed staying in an inexpensive country. There were increasing numbers of students seeking a degree from an English-speaking university. Some married New Zealanders and stayed.
On occasion, tension has developed between France and New Zealand over nuclear tests and rugby tests.
During French nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll in the 1970s a New Zealand frigate was sent into the Pacific as a silent witness. Animosity intensified when French agents sank the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in 1985. However, diplomatic ties were subsequently renewed.
There have been many fiercely competitive rugby tests between the two nations. The French first toured in 1961, and were beaten. But they won a resounding victory in the 1999 Rugby World Cup semi-finals.
In the early 2000s most French-born lived in Auckland and Wellington, and nearly half had dual citizenship. The largest occupational group were professionals.
The small number of French immigrants bears no relation to the immense impact of French culture. Wine and other imports were recorded in 1892, and from the earliest days French was taught in schools. In 2001 French was the most spoken non-English language after Māori and Samoan. There is a strong history of cultural, scientific and academic exchange between the two nations.
With the post-war popularity of coffee bars and licensed restaurants came an appreciation of French cuisine, including wine, bread and cheeses. Trade and tourism increased the demand for cars, perfume, cinema, fashion and kitchenware.
After the Second World War many French wool firms opened branches in Wellington and Christchurch, sending out buyers and their families. They were active in the cultural life of the 1950s and again in the 1970s.
French immigrants did not build up a significant community, although there are informal groups. The Cercle Français, established in 1908, was renamed the Alliance Française in 1984. In 2003 there were 11 branches with about 2,500 members. The clubs offer regular film festivals, concerts, exhibitions and language classes.
The New Zealand census figures listed here show the number of residents born in France.
In the 2006 census, people were asked to indicate the ethnic group or groups with which they identified. The numbers include those who indicated more than one group.
Buick, T. Lindsay. The French at Akaroa: an adventure in colonisation, 1866–1938. Christchurch: Capper, 1980 (originally published 1923 ).
Dunmore, John, ed. New Zealand and the French: two centuries of contact. Waikanae: Heritage, 1990.
Goulter, Mary Catherine. Sons of France. Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1957.
Hemming, Christine. The art of the French voyages to New Zealand, 1769–1846. Auckland: Heritage, 2000.
Tremewan, Peter, ed. French Akaroa: an attempt to colonise southern New Zealand. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Press, 1990.
Salmond, Anne. Two worlds: first meetings between Maori and Europeans, 1642–1772. Auckland: Viking, 1991.
The website of the French embassy in New Zealand.
In French and English, this website is for French travellers and residents in New Zealand.
http://history-nz.org/colonisation4.html
On the New Zealand in History website, this is an outline of the Akaroa settlement, and the conflicting French and British interests.
Frenz School is an association which has set up a French–English unit at Auckland’s Richmond Road School.
Frenz School is an association which has set up a French–English unit at Auckland’s Richmond Road School.