THE NEW ZEALAND LAND COMPANY

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 25 (Supplement)

THE NEW ZEALAND LAND COMPANY

Wakefield's ship, The Tory, arrived first (August, 1839), and Colonel Wakefield lost no time in opening negotiations. Hearing that missionaries were coming from the north to look after the interests 1 of the Maori and see that they were fairly treated he hurriedly got together as many chiefs as he could at Port Nicholson, Wellington, and secured the services of a man called Barrett as interpreter. Barrett, while speaking the "Pakeha-Maori" lingo, which passed muster for such purposes, was as ignorant of, as he was indifferent to, Maori laws and rights. Displaying his barter of pipes, nightcaps. Jews' harps, sealing wax, plentifully seasoned with guns, axes, and ammunition, Wakefieid, through Barrett, persuaded the chiefs to sign documents, ceding to. him the whole of their tribal territory. They did not know what they signed, and when, in later days, they knew the construction put upon the transaction, were eager to repudiate it. From Port Nicholson Wakefield hurried to Kapiti, in order to meet Te Rauparaha. By a grim coincidence, when Wakefield opened his negotiations with Rauparaha, as head of the Ngatitoa, the wailing cries of the Ngatiawa arose from Waikanae, where there had just been a fierce fight over the Port Nicholson barter, and the tribes mourned their dead.

Te Rauparaha, "slow and dignified in action, easy in manner," showed at first no inclination to sell. The sight of guns and ammunition lured him to further consideration Finally Rauparaha and his nephew, together with other chiefs, signed certain documents which satisfied even Wakefield's rapacity. The territory acquired at the cost of barter representing a value of sixpence per ACPvE, included all the lands constituting the present provinces of Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, and Marlborough, and its alienation would have left eleven great and powerful tribes absolutely homeless and landless.

Meanwhile Governor Hobson had arrived w^th strict instructions to see that no false claims to land w re set up to over-reach the Maoris. His first step was to formulate the now famous