A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 70, 20 September 1937, Page 16

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

THE BARON DE THIERRY

ENTERPRISE THAT FAILED

In view of the approach of the hundredth anniversaries of events in New Zealand history, it is interesting to recall the colonisation work of Baron Charles Phillipe Hippolyte de Thierry who purchased forty thousand acres in the Hokianga district, North Auckland, from the Maori Chiefs Muriwai, Patuone, and Tamati Waka Nene-under a deed dated 1822. In 1821 the missionary Thomas Kendall, in company with the Chiefs Hongi and Waikatc, met the baron at Oxford in the course of their English tour. When the Baroi. had assimilated the details of the possibilities that existed in New Zealand for enterprising settlers he took-steps to acquire rights which were, however, never recognised by the Governments of England and France. The Baron's interest in his distant possession grew in the face of frustration. His attempts to launch an emigration scheme from England failed.

With a young family the Baron travelled to New York, the West Indies, and later to Panama, where he entered negotiations to secure rights

to construct a canal through the famous Isthmus. \t\ 1835 the Baron wrote to, Busby, the British • Resident in New Zealand, announcing his in-

tention to establish a Sovereign Government in the North of Auckland. Busby's reaction to this challenge was to warn the settlers against the Baron and to secure the signatures of thirtyfive Maori Chiefs to a Declaration of Independence.

After spending some time in the Pacific,, the Baron arrived in Sydney where, 100 years ago today he wrote his "Address to' the White Residents in New Zealand. The ' Baron wrote in his address: "I appeal to every respectable white resident in New Zealand . for his decision in a question from which he must discard the prejudices which the reports of evil-disposed persons have insidiously raised against me and in which he must allow the unshackled dictates of his heart to respond to the voice of honour, honesty, and integrity. ..."

He continued his Utopian outline with a list of benefits, and concluded with a promise of free medical atten-

tion, free trade, trial by jury, and an absence of taxation.

On November 4, 1837, the Baron arrived at Hokianga with ninety-six colonists. His dreams of Utopia were rudely shattered; not the least of the obstacles of the Sovereign King being the invalid title, the opposition of both Maori and pakeha, the lack of capital, and the facility with which his enemies exposed him to ridicule. The Baron's acres, which fie had purchased for thirty-six axes, diminished until in his last years he was a music teacher in Auckland. Yet the part that the Baron de Thierry played in New Zealand, whether regarded as comic relief-or tragedy, strengthened the position of the English settlers who were anxious for their Government to establish sovereignty over the three islands before France took similar action.