THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

Marlborough Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1253, 17 December 1880, Page 4

THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

• • LECTURE BY DR T. M. HOOKEN, OF DUNEDIN. (From the Otago Witness.) Messrs Catlia, after whom is called Catlia River, professed to : purohase 6,500,000 acres for £6O ; another specu-; dator> 2,000,000/ Mr George Green, lately! deceased, 6,500,000. ': A purchase was .njade in the North Island of a portion of land embracing a coast-line of 160 miles, and extending into the interior as far as the purchaser thought convenient to himself, the purohase-money being equivalent, to about £l6O Of course, scores of such! olaims were afterwards disallowed, but they! will serve to show the nature and enormity of the traffic. As far as could be defined; ..in September, 1841, there were in this (the South) Island 38 claimants for 19,250,000 acres of land- and in the North; 'lsland 339 claimants for six and a quarter; millions. The legal documents—if theyi desorve the name—were prepared in Sydney, and specimens of them I now exhibit.; A special feature of interest in them is; that ( the signature of the chief, who wasj unable to write his name, is represented on! the parohment by an elaborate drawing of! the'tattoo upon his face. This method of signature is extensively used in the Treaty; of Waitangi. The missionaries did good service in representing-the nefarious trans-; actions to the British Government, dread-; in‘g, justifiably enough, that what with in-j l terneoine warfares and their loss of land, the Native race would soon be exterminated. The missionaries further feared the annexation of the Islands by the French, of whose iolaims I shall immediately speak. They accordingly, in 1831, ibduoed 13 of the -principal chiefs at the Bay of Islands to apply for protection to King William. As 'the document is curious I transcribe a 'translation of itTp King William, the gracious chief of England.—King W illiam, .—We, the chiefs of New Zealand, assembled •at this place called the Kerikeri, write to thee/ for we J h4ar that thou art the great 'chief of the other side the water, since the .many ships come to our. land are from thee. We are a people without possessions. We have nothing but timber, flax, pork, and potatoes. Wo sell these things, however, to your people, and then we see the property of Europeans. It is only thy land whiob is liberal towards us. From thee also Come the missionaries who teach as to believe in Jehovah God, and on Christ His Son. We have heard that the tribe of Marion is at hand, coming to take away our land, therefore we pray thee to become our friend and the guardian of these islands, lest the teaching of other tribes should come near to us, and lest strangers should oome and take away our lands. And if any of thy people should be troublesome or vicious towards us (for some persons are living here who have run away from ships), we pray thee to be angry with them, that they may be obedient, lest the anger of the people of \ this land fall upon them. This letter is from us, the chiefs of the Natives of New Zealand." /

This, document evidently bears the impress of the missionary hand. We need not stop to remark how curious it is that thjs ;; handfnl: .of chiefs id the Bay of Islands should be taken to represent the whole Native population, the largest section of which was. pontinually plunged in war, and had never been associated with the missionaries. Suffice it to say that tW document served' its intended purpose. A gracious reply on behalf of his Sovereign was, sent ’by Lord Goderich, one of the principal Secretaries of State, to the chiefs of New Zealand, and Mr James Busby was accredited to them as British Resident—a tijtle / well; known in the native courts of India,"and' given by the East India Company to those of their officers who were resident at v those courts, and who watched over the British interests.' Mr Busby was a-: well -known New South Wales settler, and >bh held office from 1833 to the assumption of British Government in 1840 by Governor Hobson. His duties were generally to promot’d peace amongst all parties, whetiher;European or Nativo ; to assist the missionaries, and : to communicate anything of importance to the Government: Unfortunately, he had little or no means of enforcing bis authority: he. was single-handed, and he was facetiously called by the graceless' European - residents u a man-of-war without years ago, when on a visit to the Bay of Islands, I called upon Mrs- Busby, widow of the late Mr Busby! She was the most courteous and stately old lady' I have ever seen k and much interesting information did she give me. Her house, w.biob ;has stood upon its present site for nearly 50 years, is situated at Waitangi, upon a conspicuous point-of land gently inclining down to the water’s edge. Upon its slopes was signed the celebrated Treaty of Waitangi, whereby the chiefs of New Zealand ceded possession of NeW Zealand to the. Queen of England. Here will be the proper place to refer to the assumption, of authority by the French. The French were frequent visitors to this country,' upon whose shores their countrymen, Marion and hie companions met their sad fate: Frenob whalers frequented its harbours, and men-of-war sailing through the South Seas rarely omitted to visit the spot that had historic interest for their nation as well as for the British. Some efforts were made in France, and these were advocated by the journals, to found a colony and a penal settlement in New Zealand, and it was partly to counteract these' efforts that Mr Busby was installed resident and general supervisor. Verjt nearly, as you probably know, was the French standard planted at Akaroa in ,1840.* To this incident I shall more fully

refer in my next leoture. But the most extraordinary, indeed ludicrous, attempt of the French to take possession of New Zealand was on the part of Baron do Thierry in 1888. The whole scheme, inclusive of its ending, has a great savour of one of the celebrated though hairbrained undertakings of the immoral Don Quixote. The Baron de Tnierry, though born and bred in England, was the son of a French, nobleman —an emigrd. In 1820, whilst at Cambridge, be met Mr Kendall, the missionary, and Hongi, the chief, who were then on a visit to England, and who were engaged in assisting Professor Lee. in the compilation of bis New Zealand Vooabu lary. The scheme then, no boubt, commenced to develop in his fertile brain. He ingratiated himself with Hongi, who gave him pressing invitations to visit New Zealand, and prevailed on Mr Kendall to purchase, on his return, some large blooks of land. This it was professed was done„ to the extent of some 40,000 acres of land, wood, and water, for the munificent consideration of 36 axes The deed, such as it was, was signed by three; chiefs, two of whom —Patone and Tamati Waka Nene—afterwards became firm friends and allies of the early British Government, and fought by the side of our soldiers in their first engagements with the Natives. -It would; appear that no attempt was made for some years by the Baron to take possession of his territory : not, indeed, until 1835, by which time, to use their own expression, the three chiefs “ had tbeir eyes opened,” and saw that they had been grievously cheated. They accordingly repudiated the whole bargain, and very properly. In 1835 Prince Charles prepared to take possession of his kingdom, and notified to Mr Busby that such was his intontion. The document commenced thus:—“ Charles. Barron de Thierry, by the grace of God, sovereign chief of New Zealand”; and proceeded to say that he was awaiting the arrival of an armed vessel to convey him to the Bay of Islands. He shadowed forth the form that bis future governmeut was go assume, and promised magistracies, with salaries attached, to those who aocepted office under bis authority. (To be continued.)