GOVERNORS OF NEW ZEALAND

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 25

GOVERNORS OF NEW ZEALAND

RECORDS AHB RECOLLECTIONS [Written by “ T.J.W.” for the ‘ Evening Star.’] No. I. ' ; Tasman discovered New Zealand in 1642. but contented himself with coasting, steering up the West Coast and finally departing without setting foot in the country.. Cook took possession in the name of George 111. in 1769, and when, in 1787, New South Wales was declared a part of the British dominions, New Zealand was within the proclaimed boundary. Whaling; stations were established at various points prior to and after the year 1800 The first missionaries arrived in 1814, Samuel Marsden among the number. ,

Numbers of persons began to settle in the country, encouraged by the spread of the missionary influence and the tranquility, that ensued. The main attraction was the chance of buying latere tracts of . land for next to nothing. _ The Imperial Government, noting this activity, appointed Janies Busby as British Resident , in 1823. His

duties were vague, his power nil. In 1839 the New Zealand Company, founded at Home to revive systematiccolonisation, decided to send an expedition under the command of Colonel William Wakefield to purchase land and select the site of a settlement. This audacious step was forced upon the company by the inactivity of the Colonial Office. The expedition reached Port Nicholson on January 22, 1840. and the immigrants set about founding the town of Wellington. Seven days later, on January 29, 1840, Captain Hobson, RN., arrived from Sydney in H.M.S. Herald at the Bay of Islands, empowered, with the consent of the Natives, to proclaim the sovereignty of Queen Victoria over the islands of New Zealand and to assume the' government thereof.

No douhl the sending of Wakefield and his party was the act that forced upon the Secretary of State the decision, which in the , circumstances should have been taken earlier, to sot up constitutional authority in New Zealand. The company proposed to levy taxes, make laws, inise a militia, and buy and sell land, thus in certain respects usurping the rights of the Crown. Hobson lost no time after arrival. He brought about the Waitangi Treaty, this being dated .February C, 1840; he established the seat of Government at Auckland; he proclaimed the Queen’s sovereignty over the North Island on May 21 the same year; he caused the sovereignty over the South Island to be proclaimed at Cloudy Bav by Major Bunbnry (80th Regiment-) and Captain Nias *(R.N..) on June 17, 1840.

From the date of Hobson’s proclamation until May 3, 1841, New Zealand remained a dependency of New South Wales; then it was created a separate colony by Royal Charter dated November 16. 1840 THE EIGHTEEN GOVERNORS Captain William Hobson, from January 29, 1840, till his death on September 10, 1842. Captain Robert Fitzroy, from December 26. 1843,' to November 17, 1845. Captain George Grey, from November 18, 1845, to December 31, 1853. Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, from September 6, 1855, to October 2, 1861. Sir George Grey, from October 3. • 1861. to February 5, 1868. Sir George Ferguson Bowen, from February 5- 1868, to March 19, 1873. Sir James Fergusson, from June 14, 1873, to December 3, 1874. , Marquis of Normanby, from Decern-! her 3. 1874, to February 21, 1879. Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, from March 27, 1879, to Sep- 1 ■ tembei 8, 1880. > Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, from i November 29, 1880, to Juno 23, i .1882. Lieutenant-General Sir William ! Francis Drummond Jervois, from Januarj 20, 1883, to March 22, 1889. | Earl of Onslow, from May 2, 1889, to February 24, 1892. i Earl of Glasgow, from June 7, 1892, I to February 6. 1897. I Earl of Ranfurly, from August 10, ■ 1897, to June 19, 1904. Baron Plunket, from June 20, 1904, i to June ,8. 1910 l Baron, Islington, .from June 22. 1910, to December, 2, 1912. , ! Earl of Liverpool, from December I 19, 1912, to July 7, 1920. j Viscount Jellicoe, from September 1 27, 1920, to November 25, 1924 1 General Sir Charles Fergusson, from December 13, 1924. |