Wakefield’s Ride To Plymouth

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 1, 26 September 1939, Page 9

Wakefield’s Ride To Plymouth

Sir, —The second letter of your co.. respondent, “Mahuta,” concerning the generally-accepted story of Wakefield’s hurried journey from London to Plymouth to dispatch the Tory to New Zealand, does little to advance the discussion. I appreciate his zeal for historical accuracy, but he is hard to please when he refuses to accept the evidence of at least three historians of the Wakefield period. However, we have advanced a certain distance. In his first letter “Mahuta” stated that the only authority he knew for the story was Miss Irma O’Connor’s biography of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. In my reply I gave precise reference to three other authoritative works where “Mahuta” might read the same story. Now he infers that these are not trustworthy either, and insists on an original document proving that Wakefield went to Plymouth to get the Tory to sea before the Government could interfere to stop her. “Mahuta” is at a loss to understand why neither Colonel Wakefield nor Edward Jerningham Wakefield mentions Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s presence at Plymouth when the vessel sailed. But they do not mention the names of anyone who was present. One account of the departure (which is not supported by affidavit) states that "the long-coated, high-hatted gentlemen who accompanied Colonel Wakefield bade farewell to their relatives on the cold stone pier.” Who were the “relatives” on the pier? In this connexion, too, is it not very significant (in view of the need for haste) that the Tory weighed anchor at 3.30 a.m. ou May 12, 1839? I do not think that your correspondent’s suggestion that I, and those historians who support me, make Wakefield ride 240 miles “through the night” need be taken seriously. Wakefield was certainly a dashing character, but not as speedy as that. The expression, of course, referred only to his departure from London. Much more might be said, but I do not wish to indulge in speculation. I suggest to “Mahuta,” however, that he does not fully appreciate the fact that an incident of this kind would not find its way into the official documents on which we chiefly rely for the history of this period. In writing my article my task was not to write a history from documentary evidence, but, relying on the most trustworthy sources we have, to publish a story of great current interest to Wellington and New Zealand. All the authorities quoted have studied and sifted much more first-hand evidence about Wakefield than is available in New Zealand, and yet they all tell the same story about the incident which “Mahuta” doubts! It seems, therefore, that, before he can challenge the accuracy of my article, he must reject, as competent historians and as authoritative biographers of Wakefield, Dr. Garnet, Dr. A. J. Harrop and Miss Irma O’Connor, herself a great-grand-daughter' of the famous colonizer.—l am, etc., • L. R. PALMER. Wellington, September 25.