HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1939, Page 4

HUNDRED YEARS AGO

UNITED STATES APPOINTS A CONSUL WHALING INTERETS IN NEW ZEALAND. INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY DAYS. On July 30, 1839, the first United States Consul in New Zealand, appointed early in the same year, reported to his home government. Thus one hundred years ago American interest in the disposal of New Zealand was quite as strong as that of the French. The United States, however, never had any ambition to acquire territory in New Zealand. The first United States Consul was James R. Clendon, a Bay of Islands merchant of some years standing. He was appointed to look after the interests oi American whalers in New Zealand waters, and at that time the Americans, besides having the largest fleet, were genarally considered the most eflecient and courageous whalers. They did not actually whale from the Bay of Islands, but Kororareka was the best port in New Zealand in 1839 for refreshment on a voyage that usually lasted two or more years.

A BUSY LIFE. We know from the fact that in May, 1834, he was one of the ten signatories of a memorandum requesting James Busby to defend British interests, that Clendon must have suffered from some of the discomforts of living in a country whose native Government was described as “exceedingly loose.” Again in 1837 he signed a round robin from the respectable white residents of New Zealand requesting the British Government’s protection. of the problems of his short tenure of the office of United States Consul were concerned with the breaches of the peace in one form or another by sailors and other Europeans. The Maori chiefs were actually most helpful, returning deserters to their ship’s captain for a small reward in trade goods. Ships calling at the Bay were usually short of men. One of the tricks of the tavern-keepers of Kororareka was to kidnap men or entice them off one ship in order to sell them to another, short-staffed as the result of similar depredations. Captain Bennett, of the American whaler Hannibal, knew how to deal with the decoyers of his seamen. He raised a force from the other American whaling ships in the Bay and pulled down the house where his missing seamen had been concealed. Clendon did all he could to help captains retrieve their men. On one occasion he had to succour the crew of a whaler wrecked at Akaroa. Besides he had routine duties, furnishing returns of American shipping and reporting on the British Treaty negotiations or the direct action—which he applauded—of the forceful Captain Bennett.

ENGLAND TAKES OVER. When an armed party of Europeans at Kapiti Island stole a boat from American whalers, Clendon wrote home that he wished an American man-of-war would cruise in New Zealand waters to Impress the “lawless wretches” of Cook Strait. This prayer was soon to be answered. The American Antarctic exploring squadron under Commander- Wilkes returned from the south in 1840 and was at the Bay of Islands from February to April. Its leader, when he got home, made .a curious statement that the Treaty of Waitangi had been “signed entirely through the influence of Mr Clendon, the American Consul.” This is not true, though Clendon probably made himself serviceable to Hobson, for in May, 1841, Hobson appointed Clendon to his Legislative Council, a position he held till 1844. There is therefore a strong presumption that Clendon was a British citizen. In 1841 he had appointed a vice-consul, Mayhew, a citizen of the United States, to release him from his duties, and sent in his own resignation.

A COMFORTABLE HOME.

Felton Mathew, first Surveyor-Gen-eral to the Colony, visited Clendon’s comfortable home. “We landed on the estate of a Mr Clendon, American Consul, who has acquired a very fine property. His house is handsomely furnished. and is very prettily situated with a nice lawn and paddock green with clover, and commanding a tine view of the harbour.” Mrs Felton Mathew has left us an even more intimate sketch of the interior of the Consulate. “Mrs Clendon seems a very kind sort of good creature. ... She has all the comforts and many of the luxuries of a civilised life about her. There is a splendid piano by Broadwood in the drawing-room, but so woefully out of tune that it is quite impossible to touch it. We drank tea from splendid china served on a silver salver, and about nine o’clock look leave of our kind hostess, whose trouble with her guests was much increased by a cross, screaming babe four months old.”

AMERICA’S DWINDLING INTERESTS. It is noteworthy that America had a Consul in New Zealand at a time when England had only a Resident, the sedate, upright and ineffectual James Busby, an officer with a lower status in international law. Hobson himself had been sent out armed with a commission as Consul, for use in case he should have failed to negotiate a treaty with the Maoris. Mayhew, the Vice-Consul, reported in 1842 that the new Government was extremely detrimental to American interests.* Heavy duties were imposed on American imports, and whaling by foreign ships was prohibited inside the three-mile limit. But in any case the whales were disappearing and with them United States interest in New Zealand.