THE FRENCH AT AKAROA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 8900, 17 September 1889, Page 6

THE FRENCH AT AKAROA.

The settlement of Banks’ Peninsula will form one of the most interesting pages in the history of New Zealand, and although many of our readers are familiar with the events of 1840—how nearly part of the South Island became a French instead of an English Colony—the following extract from a series of papers contributed to the European Mail by Mr W. H. J. Seffern, of New Plymouth, are well worth reproducing:—The “Nanto-Bordelaise Company” was started with a view of forming a French settlement in New Zealand. It was about August, 1838, that Captain L’Anglois, who was the master of a French whaling ship, purchased, or asserted he did, a block of land on Banks’ Peninsula from the Natives. The claim is defined as follows:—"All Banks’ Peninsula, in the Middle Island of New Zealand, with the exception of the Bay of Hikuraki and Oihoa on the South and Sandy Beach on the North of Port Cooper—the supposed contents 30,000 acres.” The block included the whole of the head of the Akaroa Harbour and the site of the present town. Two deeds exist in the French language purporting to convey this cession of land, but they were probably not executed until the return of Captain L’Angloie and M. de Belligny in 1840, after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. The particulars of this transaction I get from the evidence given by one George Fleuret during the inquiry into the matter by a Committee appointed by the House of Commons. He deposed to the belief that an agreement was made by Captain L’Anglois and the Natives for the purchase of some quantity of land, but he was very uncertain as to its extent. It appears that Fleuret was desirous of stopping at Banks’ Peninsula, and the whaling ship Cacheloe, in which he was serving, went away, but Captain L’Anglois remonstrated with him, and on his intimating that he intended returning with other settlers, Fleuret took his departure likewise. On the captain’s return to France, he induced several gentlemen, members of mercantile houses in Havre, Nantes, and Bordeaux, to form themselves into an association for the purpose of colonising New Zealand. The project was warmly espoused by the French press, and even the King, Louis Philippe, aided its formation with substantial assistance. Captain L’Anglois eventually ceded his right to a company called the "Nanto-Bordelaise Compagnie,” reserving to himself an interest of one-fifth, and giving up the deed of sale from the Natives as his subscription of 600 francs to become a partner to the amount of one-fifth in the Company. The object of the Company, it was stated at the time, was “ the colonisation of the Middle Island of New Zealand, and for fishing upon its coasts;” butfromthefactof the Government taking the project up, the French Cabinet had evidently another object in view. In fact, the Journal du Havre of Feb. 10,1840, in an article on the subject, appeared to admit this, for it says: —" The attempt at colonisation is not the only object of the ‘Nanto-Bordelaise Compagnie,’ for, if the locality is found suitable, the Company has agreed to cede to the French Government a portion of the territory as a penal settlement for convicts.”

The “ Nanto-Bordelaise Company ” was started with a capital of 1,000,000 francos (under .£42,000), only a sixth of which was paid up | and in return for ceding to the French “one-fifth of its territory to establish a penal settlement,” the Government gave the Company a grant of money and picked men from the Eoyal Navy as a subsidy to the expedition. The whaling ship Comte de Paris was fitted up for the voyage, and took on board sixty-three emigrants, comprising thirty men, eleven women, and twenty-two children. This vessel left Eochefort m March, 1840, having on board a complete whaling crew, “ men enough to man four six-oared boats and work the ship at the same time.” The French Government, about the same time the ship Comte de Paris left, sent instructions to Commodore Lavaud, who was in charge of the French squadron maintained for the purpose of looking after the interests of the French whalers in the Pacific, to aid in the formal taking of the South Island by planting the French flag at Akaroa. Commodore Lavaud, in the corvette L’Aube, on receiving his instructions, sailed at once for New Zealand, making for.the Bay of Islands, where he arrived about June 20, 1840, and found Captain Hobson in full possession of the North Island. The Commodore, in course of conversation, referred to the French expedition expected at Akaroa, when dilating on the beauty of the spot and speaking of the natural advantages of the place. Knowing about the date the ship Comte de Paris was likely to arrive at its destination, Commodore Lavaud, seeing there was no necessity to hurry, remained at the Bay of Islands in company with the English officers there. He evidently did not notice that one of the war vessels left soon after his arrived; but such was

the case, for Captain Hobson, on learning \ that the French expedition was expected at Akaroa, despatched the sloop Britomart, in command of Captain Owen Stanley, ostensibly to convey two Magistrates to Port Nicholson, but actually to defeat the movement of any foreign ship of war that might be engaged in establishing a settlement on any part of the coast of New Zealand, and took possession of the South Island. The Britomart arrived at Akaroa on August 10, 1840. The place was already settled, for Captain William Barnard Rhodes had had the place stocked with cattle, and stationed there some twenty or thirty people. He also had a flagstaff erected, and instructed his men, if they saw a French vessel enter the harbour, to run up the British ensign and to collect the cattle and people under it around the flagstaff. When, therefore. Captain Stanley arrived he found the work already done for him, so he had only to remain in the harbour and await the foreign arrivals. One of the magistrates (Mr Eobinson) went on shore, and with all legal formality established a Court of Petty Sessions there immediately on landing; and, as no case was brought under his consideration, according to instructions, he adjourned the Court from day to day, carefully recording proceedings and reporting the same to Governor Hobson.

On Thursday, August 13, 1840 (three days later). Commodore Lavaud in the frigate L’Aube arrived, and on the following Sunday, August 16, the ship Comte de Paris came also to an anchor in the Bay. The new arrivals, in coming up the harbour, were somewhat surprised to find the place populated with white people, for at that time there were eighty-four English persons (including men, women, and children) living on the spot; and when the French ship with the immigrants was towed round Green’s Point, those on board saw a small group of men standing by a flagstaff, at the top of which floated the “ Union Jack ” of Old England. Amongst the stores brought by the Comte de Paris were * f six long 24-pouuders,” but these upon Captain Stanley's remonstrance to the Commodore, were not landed. On Wednesday, August 19, the French immigrants landed, we are told, <r in a sheltered, well-chosen part of the bay, where they could not interfere with anyone,” and commenced, with the characteristic industry of the French workman, to erect houses and cultivate the land; and so successful was one of the cultivators that the Paris Constitutionnel of the following year, in commenting on the progress of the Colony, stated " that one of the Colonists who had planted himself a league from Akaroa had, with the aid of his wife, from two acres and a half of land, cleared, in five months, 1500 fr by the sale of vegetables.” The French Commodore remained at the settlement for more than a year, and it was during this stay that M. Eaoul, the surgeon of the vessel, an able botanist, made hia valuable contribution to the study of the New Zealand flora. Commodore Lavaud, to outward appearance, acted as if his nation had acquired the territory, but this was done to prevent any bitter feeling arising on the part of his people towards the English, and he thus maintained authority over the French immigrants until they were settled down. It was merely diplomacy on his part, for Governor Hobson, in one of his despatches to the Secretary for the Colonies, says that "the French Commodore disclaimed any national intrusion on the part of his Government, but he supported the claims of his Company as private individuals, asserting his to be the only bond fide purchase of that district which had been made from the Natives.” At the end of 1840 the French immigrants had not procured any live stock, but were living on preserved and salt meats, with the fish they caught and what vegetables they could get from their small gardens, whilst the Commodore built them, a large store to protect their property from the rain. It is recorded also that Lavaud was particularly hospitable, and whilst Mr Eobinson’s house was being built, insisted on that gentleman living on board the L’Aube during her stay in the waters of the Peninsula, which offer was accepted until the completion of the Magisterial residence. It was during this sojourn on board the L’Aube that Mr Eobinson agreed not to have the British ensign hoisted on the shore while the French man-of-war remained in harbour, and the fact of the English having taken possession of the place before the arrival of the French was kept a secret, for fear it should lead to a disturbance between those who were there first and the new comers. There were, of course, many rumours current, but it was not till years afterwards that the French settlors came to know that they had been living in a place out of the jurisdiction of their own nation. Mr Eobinson, E.M., agreed to the French maintaining authority over their people until some definite arrangements could be made between the respective Governments respecting the various conflicting claims to the lauds in Banks' Peninsula, the Commodore assisting him in so doing, but the British flag was not to be hoisted over his countrymen in the meantime. This diplomacy on the part of two officers of different nations had a very beneficial effect—so much so that after the question of the title to the land had been settled, the French Government offered to convey the immigrants free of charge to Tahiti, and to give them the same amount of property there as they possessed in New Zealand, but it was declined, and the descendants of the pioneer French settlers are still to be found at Akaroa.