Millionaires need not apply — that’s how it used to be

Press, 27 March 1980, Page 21

Millionaires need not apply — that’s how it used to be

In 1820, the Ngapuhi Chief Hongi Hika and a young Chieftain named Waikato voyaged to Englad with the missionary', Thomas Kendall. “Shunghee,” as the English called him, was a warrior-leader, the epitome of the mythical Noble Savage so beloved by philosophers and poets.

He was lionised by London society. No lesser personages than their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of York and Clarence, Lords and Ladies, Bishops and Professors, entertained “The King of New Zealand,” as Hongi was popularly called.

! A society gossip named Thomas Creevy went into raptures over Hongi’s tattooing. “I found his royal face to be one of the veryfinest specimens of caring I have ever beheld . . . It is confidently reported that en derriere both his Majestv and his Minister (Waikato) are much more profusely decorated with ornamental carving than on their faces — but you'll not quote me!” Hongi was granted audience with King George IV who was so taken with the Chief he gave him a gun with a suitably engraved presentationplate attached. Hongi liked guns for he was a war lord, his business was fighting, and the gun was a weapon he desired in

large quantities. Of all the people he met in England Hongi was to find the Baron Charles Philip Hippolytus De Theirry the nxist useful. An historian has described the Baron as “an incurable romantic” — he was also a wealthy nobleman of French descent who wanted a piece of New Zealand and was prepared to pay for it. He entrusted Hongi and Kendall with $BOO to buy “the whole of the northern island” '(44,280 square miles), apart from the 20,000 acres already bought by the missionaries for axes, red cloth, and other baubles. On his way home Hongi called at Sydney where, with the Baron’s cash, he was able to acquire many muskets and ammunition. Arming his tribe with these weapons on arrival in New -Zealand, Hongi was able to avenge many old insults and decimate enemy tribes. For eight years his armies cut bloody swarths across the North Island before he died — from a musket wound.

Kendal), meantime, bought some territory for

the Baron — a few thousad acres of Northland for 36 axes. Some years later the Baron proclaimed himself Sovereign Chief of New Zealand and sailed to take charge of his “Empire.” The British Colonial Office described the Baron as “an innocuous but scheming visionary of not very sound mind,” and took measures to frustrate his plans. The unfortunate' Kendall had by then been expelled from the Missionary' Society for, among other things, naughty conduct with a Maori woman, and had died in a ship wreck on the Australian coast. When the Baron-Sovereign Chief arrived in New Zealand in 1837 he found his claim to the North Island had shrunk to a few thousand acres of Northland which was contested by' Maoris. English settlers, and the British government.

Years of wrangling over his title to the estate were to no avail and the “Sovereign Chief” was reduced to tutoring music to survive. He died at Auckland in July, 1864.

New Zealand then had no time for Sovereign Chiefs. Kings, or rich noblemen; these islands were to be the egalitarian utopia where all persons were equal. A New Zea- 1 land Premier, returning home after a visit, reputed-

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later stated. He invested $30,000 in a Bay of Islands timber company and built a house overlooking Kawakawa inlet. The infusion of capital into Whangae Timber, and its subsidiary Whangae Pines, set the business booming, and Mr Waroquier was about to transfer another $30,000 into the company from his overseas funds when, to his amazement, he received a letter from the immigration department rejecting his and Miss Poirier’s applications. An appeal was lodged, Mr Waroquier receiving up to 30 letters and phone calls a day, -o he claimed, from New Zealanders supporting him in his application to stay in Godzone. At a meeting with the then Immigration Minister, Frank Gill, the Belgian millionaire and his lady friend were told: “You cannot buy ymur wav into New Zealand.”

Miss Poirier later stated: “Mr Gill told us he had thousands of people with hundreds of thousands of dollars wanting to come to New Zealand and that as far as he was concerned the country didn’t want their money.” Mr Gill was unavailable for comment after publication of this allegation but a spokesman in his office declared that Mr Waroquier could not reside in

BRIAN MACKRELL

ly telegraphed his Australian counterpart; “Just returning to God’s own country.” “Godzone” it became and, as any Bible student will tell you, the rich man can not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Baron Charles De Theirry failed in 1837 but. 140 years later, a Belgian business man tried his luck. In s October, 1976, a luxury 22-metre yacht anchored in the Bay of Islands, hardly 50 kilometres from the Sovereign Chief’s contested estate. Aboard the vessel were 49-year old Victor Waroquier, whose personal fortune totalled S 3 million, and his 30-year old “travelling companion,” Pari-sienne-born Miss Prisca Poirier. They had a 12months visitor’s permit but liked Godzone so much they decided to settle in the country and filled out the required immigration forms in March, 1977.

“Everybody told us we would qualify as permanent residents without any trouble.” Mr' Waroquier

New Zealnad because of “his age, his unresolved marital status, and the fact that his occupation — millionaire — was not on the current list of occupations needed in New Zealand.”

T h i s announcement caused world-wide hilarity. “No wonder New Zealand’s economy is in bad shape,” quipped an American radio station. “Millionnaires need not apply” was headlined across Europe and America. “Punch” delivered a stinging satire featuring “Herr Treufuss, a German millionaire” attempting to gain entry to Godzone.

Herr Treufuss tries everything to achieve New Zealand citizenship, to no avail, including “Midway through the second half the All Blacks were still 9-6 down against British Lions. Then, from a fierce scrimmage on the halfway line a figure in a New Zealand shirt burst forth, holding the ball under one arm and brandishing a sabre in the other.

“Uttering bloodcurdling

cries of ’actung, achtung’. he charged down the field slashing at any Briton daring to approach him. When he reached the line .he thrust the point of the sabre through the ball and held it over his head like a Teuton warrior displaying the head of his enemy. The crowd went wild. . .”

Like the fictional Herr Treufuss, Mr Waroquier got no sympathy from New Zealand authorities and he and Miss Poirier sadly quit the country that “didn’t need their money.” Like the luckless Baron De Theirry they discovered that Godzone had no use for rich folk, as explained to them by Frank Gill.

But things have changed since the Baron fought for his “Empire” and the disillusioned Victor Waroquier took his $3 million and sailed off into the sunset. Early in’ September, 1979, the immigration department quietly an-

nounced that it was “now less likely to turn down wealthy businessmen who want to live permanently in New Zealand even if they are above the normal age" limit of 45.” A spokesman said: “At least one businessman, a West German, had been allowed into the country this year under the new policy.” Was it the demented, determined Herr Treufuss who was real after all and not an invention of “Punch” magazine? Or was it a certain Herr Waroquier of Bel-gium-German extraction?

Now the Saudi Arabian Prince Nawaf Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has himself a piece of Godzone. By granting Arab Royalty an “exemption under the Land Settlement Promotion and Land Acquisition Act,” does it follow that the Prince will give us some cheap oil? 1 live in hope, not Godzone. Sheep's eyes for breakfast, anyone?

Prince i\awaf Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has been allowed to buy 380 hectares of the Coromandel Peninsula for a stud sheep breeding enterprise. Allah has truly blessed him, for there was a time when the rich man could not enter “Godzone.” It was a case of: