One Hundred Years Ago

Mt Benger Mail, 27 October 1937, Page 4

One Hundred Years Ago

o New Zealand Colonisation j E. G. WAKEFIELD’S PLAN One 'hundred years ago ■to-day in the office of the New Zealand Association, Adelphi Terrace, London, two authors completed the text of a little book which now finds an honoured place in New Zealand collections. The book was “The British Colonisation of New Zealand” and the authors, who chose to reman anonymous, were Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the father of New Zealand colonisation and his friend, John Ward, the Secretary of the Association. This classic was the first work of importance to be issued by the Association and gave the earliest account of the Wakefield system as applied to New Zealand. As such it forms an important link in the chain of events which led to the despatch of the “Tory” in 1839 and the proclamation of British sovereignty in the following year.

The circumstances in which the book was published can be simply stated. Since the time of his imprisonment in Newgate and the birth of a serious interest in colonisation Edward Gibbon Wakefield had progressed far on the road which was finally to bring him to New Zealand. In the stress of social life in England his plans for an ordered system of colonisation had been gradually maturing. Forced by the circumstances of his early life to work in obscurity, he had interested influential public men in his theories and had gradually gathered a following of some of the brightest intellects in England. He had witnessed what he regarded as the misapplication of his theories in the colonisation of South Australia. Disappointed but not yet despairing, this resolute optimist now turned his . attention to another field of ‘ Very near to Australia,” he informed a Parliamentary Committee in 1836, “there is a country which all testimony concurs in describing as the fittest country in the world for colonisation, as the most beautiful country with the finest climate, and the most produticve soil; I mean New Zealand.” Here was the perfect field for the application of his ideas. The New Zealand Association. With characteristic energy, Wakefield now set to work to organise the New Zealand Association pledged to colonise this country in accordance with his theories. Circumstances, too, favoured him. As early as 1825 a company had been formed to colonise New Zealand ,and had sent out one shipload of settlers under Captain James Herd to Hokianga. The expedition had proved a dismal failure, but the Chairman of the Company, the Earl of Durham, retained his interest in New Zealand and extended his patronage to the Association. In October 1837, the affairs of the Association appeared to be progressing smoothly. Already the authors could announce that a number of heads of families and others “had determined to estabish themselves in the proposed colony. ’ * A Bill to give effect to the Association’s objects was ready for presentation to the House of Commons. Wakefield could reasonably indulge in visions of the first colony to be founded upon scientific principles. But Wakefield was to experience once more the gulf that lies between the vision and the reality. Many obstacles were still to be encountered before the first emigrant ship sailed for New Zealand, while in the new colony itself the Wakefield system was to find only a partial realisation.

The Wakefield System.

On that Autumn day of 1837, as he contemplated the tangible result of his labours, it was unlikely that Wakefield was troubled by such forebodings. Even at this distance the yellowed pages of the book convey something of his hopes and his enthusiasm. The remedy for the ills of unsystematic colonisaton could be found by anyone who cared to read through “The British Colonisation of New Zealand.” With this exposition of the Wakefield system, a new era of colonial history had begun.

And what precisely was the Wakefield system? Fh’st and foremost it was a new method of disposing of colonial lands. In almost every colony, as Wakefield was never tired of pointing out, land was granted in vast areas at absurdly low prices. The result of this policy (or lack of policy) was that settlers were dispersed over immense tracts of land so that in Western Australia, for example, a man might live a hundred miles away from his nearest neighbour. Moreover, where land could be had almost for the asking, it was natural that every settler should immediately become a land-owner. Thus labour was unprocurable. The net result of these two evils was, in Wakefield’s opinion, that “such a society commonly falls back into the primitive state, —to that backward stage in the social progress when everyone or nearly everyone, is a cultivator on his own account. The Wakefield system was to end this wasteful method of settlement with its attendant evils. Colonial lands, he said, should be

sold a uniform high, price. This would prevent the occupation of immense holdings and so gather settlers together into small communities where a civilised mode of life could be followed. At the same time it would prevent every settler from becoming a landowner and thus ensure a constant supply of labour. In Wakefield’s own words: “A sufficient, but not more than sufficient, price for all new land, is the main feature of the new system of colonisation. It obviates every species of bondage; by providing combinable labour, it renders industry very productive, and maintains both high wages and high profits; it makes the colony as attractive as possible, both to capitalists and to labourers; and not merely to these, but also, by bestowing on the colony the better attributes of an old society, to those who have a distaste for the primitive conditions of new colonies heretofore. ’ ’

But the sale of colonial lands would do more than regulate the supply of labour. It would bring in revenue which could be used, to transport emigrants to the colonies. Further, it would be employed in the endowment of churches, schools and other amenities of civilised society, so that members of every social,class would be encouraged to emigrate. The adoption of this system would mark the close of the era which regarded colonies as dumping grounds for paupers and convicts. They would again become places for the settlement of ordered communities as they had been in the days of Queen Elizabeth. So it was that a century ago the New Zealand Association launched its appeal to the British public. Before New Zealand was actually colonised many obstacles had still to be encountered; indeed the Association itself was to dissolve, giving place to the New Zealand Company. The story of these subsequent events will be told in future articles of this series. Meanwhile it may be x*emarked that some of the typical features of modern New Zealand may be discerned in “The British Colonisation of New Zealand.” To such an extent has the Wakefield system left its imprint on this country. In fact the history of New Zealand may from one point of view' be regarded simply as the working out of a series of modifications of the system as conceived by Wakefield.