OLD NEW ZEALAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19698, 2 August 1938, Page 8

OLD NEW ZEALAND

NEW FACTS DISCOVERED RESEARCH BY PROFESSOR PRIMITIVE P QNISEQMENT A description of the lawless condition of New Zealand before 1840 and of some of the early proposals for establishing some form of legal authority was given by Professor J. Rutherford, professor of history at Auckland University College, in a lecture on "New Light on Old New Zealand," to the Auckland Historical Society. The lecture embodied some of the results of recent research by Professor Rutherford in England. Among a number of experiments by settlers in primitive legislation, Professor Rutherford quoted the "native law" promulgated by an executive committee at Hokianga in 1835, which forbade the importation of ardent spirits and instructed authorised representatives to confiscate both spirits and the boat in which they were landed, imposing a fine of £25 each on vendor and purchaser. In all the extemporised penal codes, tarring and feathering figured prominently, the lecturer said. Examination of the Colonial Office archives suggested that the annexation of New Zealand was not so largely due to the forcing of the British Government's hands by the New Zealand Company as had been commonly supposed, the professor continued. As early as 1838, it had been decided to acquire sovereignty over those parts of the country settled by Europeans, so that the company's expedition scarcely affected British policy. The fact that New Zealand was first made a dependency of New South Wales was explained by Professor Rutherford as a legal accident. As the Colonial Office did not care to ask Parliament to legislate for the country when it was not "within His Majesty's dominions," the colony of New South Wales was extended to include such parts of New Zealand as Captain Hobson acquired for the Crown. Portions of letters and diaries of Felton Mathew and his wife, of Mrs. Hobson, Dr. Weekes and C. A. Dillon were read by the speaker to give a vivid picture of life in the pioneer settlement. All these manuscripts were recently acquired in England by Professor Rutherford for the New Zealand Government archives.