ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 12 May 1939, Page 3

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

THE TORY SAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND COMPANY’S DETERMINED ACTION BRITISH GOVERNMENT DEFIED (Contributed by the National Historical j Committee) One hundred years ago on 12th May, I 1839, the New Zealand Company's advance ship Tory finally sailed from Plymouth. The Tory left Gravesend on sth May, after its chief passengers had dined comfortably at the Falcon Inn in the company of Messrs Somes, Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Rintoul, of the j “Spectator,” and after the firing of a sa- ! lute of its eight guns in honour of the j enterprise. It had had trouble off j Cawsand Bay on Bth, anchoring to re- i cover from the emotion of a narrowly- : escaped collision in which the Tory ' carried away a 'schooner’s bowsprit. ' Plymouth Sound was reached in the afternoon, where Charles Heaphy, the artist, joined the ship. Two days later the Tory sailed, the rumoured prohibition of the voyage by the British Government, which had brought Wakefield hurrying down to Plymouth, not having come to anything. GOVERNMENT’S HAND FORCED It was only after prolonged attempts to coax the Government into supporting the New Zealand Company’s schemes had failed that the directors had decided to take the bull by the horns and send their expedition without its approval. Effectively this decision meant that the Company was prepared to commit its settlers to residence in New Zealand without any assurance that they would make their homes in a British country. This bold act did actually force the Government’s hand. Since the first step had been taken to colonise New Zealand, it was felt that the circumstances, in Lord Normanby’s words,

“fraught with calamity to a numerous and inoffensive people,” the Maoris, compelled the Government to intervene. The sailing of the Tory is, therefore, an event of great significance in the history of the Dominion. A DISTINGUISHED COMPANY The personnel of the Tory expedition was varied and distinguished. Edward Gibbon’s brother. Colonel William Wakefield, was in command of the expedition though not, of ocurse, of the ship. He was a silent, reserved man, of great practical and organising ability, who was to give good service to the Company and to New Zealand before his early death in Wellington in 1848. The Tory’s captain, Edmund Mein Chaffers, had served in the Navy, and had been sailing master on board H.M.S. Beagle during its long exploring voyage from 1830 to 1836, in the course of which he had called at New Zealand. Charles Heaphy sailed as the Company’s draughtsman. His pictures of early New Zealand and the V.C. he won in the Maori War are equally famous. Dr. Dorset, who was to be the Company’s surgeon in New Zealand, was on board, but George F. Robinson was the ship’s surgeon. The expedition’s naturalist, Dr. Ernst Dieffenbach, a young German political exile, was also a qualified surgeon. Dieffenbach published an interesting two volume book on his experiences which included the first ascent of Mount Egmont. Edward Jerningham Wakefield, only son of Edward Gibbon, sailing as secretary to his uncle, Colonel Wakefield, was also to publish a lively account of his New Zealand experiences. The chief mate, Richard Lowry, gave his name to Lowry Bay.

There was also on board a Maori, Nayti, who had been visiting England and France, and had lived for some time in Wakefield’s house in London. Robert Doddery, engaged as the company’s storekeeper, was assistant interpreter. He had visited New Zealand from Tasmania on a trading voyage. Nayti was not the only Polynesian on board, as there was another Maori and a native of the Marquesas Islands among the crew. Thew hole complement of the 384 ton Tory, including the Company’s own party, numbered thirtyfive.

THE VOYAGE OUT Colonel Wakefield’s diary, now in the Alexander Turnbull Library, tells us how they whiled away the tedious voyage. They held debates; they fished for sharks: they kept a keen look-out for other ships or such wonders of the deep as finback whales, porpoises, flying fish, and the zoophytes fished up for examination by Dr. Dieffenbach. Colonel Wakefield was a laconic diarist, and as the boredom of the long voyage overcame him, his entries became more and more terse. But he recorded some interesting opinions. He came to the conclusion that Manakau Harbour would be the best site for a settlement. He also resolved to “gain the chiefs and missionaries.” which, once accomplished, he would have formed a confederation of chiefs with which alone he would have treated in buying land. It is a pity he did not carry out these good resolutions. At least they are evidence, with the proposal for ample native reserves, that the New Zealand Company by no means intended to neglect native interests, as the British Government imagined.

A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT During the voyage discussion must have turned on hypnotism or “magnetism,” as it used to be called. Jerningham Wakefield “magnetised” Heaphy who became “hysterical and finally a maniac.” Heaphy recovered after about four hours. This singular experiment was later repeated with nearly the same effect on the unfortunate subject. Another somewhat untoward event was a curious delusion developed by poor Nayti, who had begun the voyage “very dull and thoughtful.” Two months later

Nayti refused to eat meals with the cabin party, because he believed that whenever they spoke of an albatross they covertly referred to him. The long voyage was apparently telling on his nerves. LAND HO! It was at noon on lGth August, 1939, after a remarkably quick passage, that those on the Tory sighted the west coast of “Tavai Poenamoo,” the South Island. They had made their landfall at approximately the same place as Abel Tasman nearly two hundred years before. The Tory heralded an epoch quite as definitely as the historic voyage of the Dutch discoverer.