Time Line of events up to 1850

Arrival of Māori: Māori are a Polynesian people who arrived in New Zealand in a series of long ocean-going voyages across the Pacific and fairly rapidly spread over the country. There is no one place identified as the original homeland of the Māori, although in legend this is usually identified as "Hawaiki". Tradition has it that Hineteaparangi, wife of Kupe, an early visitor to these shores, first used the name Aotearoa ("long white cloud"). Some commentators, however, are sceptical as to whether this term was in general use prior to 1840.
1642 Abel Tasman: On 18-19 December 1642, while searching for the great southern continent, Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman anchored in Golden Bay. The Māori blew a war horn and Tasman replied with trumpets. Following an attack on a ship's boat by some Māori, the Dutch returned fire before sailing away. Tasman named the area Murderers' Bay.
1762 Captain Cook: Captain James Cook, commanding HMS Endeavour, sighted the East Coast at Poverty Bay and came ashore at Tūranganui (now Gisborne) on 9 October 1769. Misunderstandings resulted in the sailors using their firearms and several Māori were killed. Cook sailed away along the East Coast on 10 October, searching for food and provisions. He did not formally claim New Zealand for Great Britain by right of discovery, which would have given the British Crown sovereignty under international law at the time.
C1800 Early Māori and European contact: A pattern of contact was established between Māori and early whalers and sealers. Europeans (or Pākehā) numbered barely a handful in any one place, and they often lived as guests of the estimated 100,000 Māori in their distinct and independent tribal regions. Early interaction with ships visiting to trade or take trees (for ships' spars) sometimes led to misunderstandings and violence. Crewmen sometimes broke local tapu or mistreated Māori, and occasionally openly plundered, for which Māori sought utu (satisfaction) by attacking the ships. This occurred with the Fancy in 1795, and the Royal Admiral in 1801, the Elizabeth, the Seringapatam and the Parramatta in 1808 and culminated with Her Majesty's Transport the Boyd in Whangaroa in 1809, where the ship was attacked and burnt. The subsequent massive retaliation, however, fell on the wrong village.
1814 Marsden’s mission: The Reverand Samuel Marsden, the Anglican Chaplain to the British penal colony in New South Wales, was one of the first missionaries in New Zealand. Despite an earlier visit in 1807, a Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission was not established at Rangihoua until December 1814. Three lay missionaries, William Hall, Thomas Kendall and John King, accompanied Marsden, who preached a sermon on Christmas Day – to Māori. This was interpreted for them by local chief Ruatara, who had earlier met Marsden in England. Marsden purchased a supply ship for the mission (the Active), and this was sent on a preliminary voyage in June 1814. At the same time, offences committed against Māori, whether on land or on board ships, led to Thomas Kendall being appointed as Resident Magistrate in the Bay of Islands by New South Wales Governor Macquarie. This was New Zealand's first judicial appointment.
1827 First whaling stations: Offshore whaling had been commonplace in New Zealand waters since 1791. However, it was not until 1827 that the first shore whaling stations emerged. Operating from April to October each year, they processed whales for oil and whalebone. Primarily financed by Australian merchants, there were approximately 30 stations around New Zealand by the end of the 1830s, sited mainly on the North Island's East Coast and in the lower South Island. The size of operations varied. For example, the large Weller station in Otago boasted at its peak approximately 80 cottages and 120 men, a quarter of whom were Māori. It was common for the Pākehā workers to be welcomed into local tribes and to marry Māori women.
1831 Māori Chiefs petition British government: Lawlessness by sailors, escaped convicts and adventurers from New South Wales began to increase and there were growing fears of French annexation of New Zealand. Therefore, at the suggestion of New South Wales Governor Darling, missionary William Yate assisted 13 northern chiefs to prepare a letter to King William IV, asking for his protection and signed with their moko. The fear of unscrupulous sailors had increased after the Elizabeth affair, when her captain allowed the vessel to be used in a Ngāti Toa raid from Kapiti on Ngāi Tahu in Akaroa. The British Crown acknowledged the petition and promised protection.
1832 James Bushy appointed British Resident: In order to protect Māori, the growing number of British settlers and its own trade interest, the British Government appointed James Busby as its official Resident (a sort of junior consular representative, without effective powers because New Zealand was not within British jurisdiction). He arrived in May 1833 and built a house on land he bought at Waitangi. Described as a 'man-o'-war [naval warship] without guns', he was unable to exert much control over British subjects beyond mere persuasion or much influence over Māori.
1834 First New Zealand flag: In 1830 a New Zealand-built ship, the Sir George Murray, was seized by Customs in Sydney for breaking British navigation laws by sailing without a flag or register. As New Zealand was not yet a British colony its ships could not sail under a British flag, without which trading ships and their valuable cargoes would continue to be seized. On 20 March 1834 Busby met with some 25 northern chiefs and British naval officers to agree on a flag for the growing number of New Zealand-built ships. The chiefs chose from three designs devised by Busby and CMS missionary Henry Williams. The preferred design was one already used by the Church Missionary Society and it remained in use until the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi six years later.
1835 The Declaration of Independence: In response to a perceived threat of French annexation, Busby drew up, without authorisation from his superiors, a Declaration of Independence, which was signed by 34 northern chiefs. Additional signatures, including some from further south, were added over the next four years. This group referred to themselves in the Declaration as the Confederation of Chiefs of the United Tribes of New Zealand, although there is no evidence that the confederation was ever convened again, except at the time of the signing of the Treaty in 1840. It received a puzzled and rather lukewarm reception at the Colonial Office in England, which was well aware that New Zealand was not a British possession and did not want to take responsibility for it. The Colonial Office, advised by the missionary societies, was by no means convinced that there was a viable political authority in New Zealand with which it could form diplomatic relations. The Declaration was, however, acknowledged by the British Government. Some historians suggest it was not taken seriously until it proved to be an impediment to the annexation of New Zealand. It is thought that for this reason the document was used for calling up chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. Other experts view the Declaration as an embryonic expression of Māori nationhood, which, in conjunction with other events in the 1820s and 1830s, shows that the Treaty of Waitangi was part of a negotiated relationship and not the beginning of European power and the end of Māori sovereignty.
1835 – 40 Concern over Māori welfare: In the late 1830s, following on from the report of the Select Committee on Aborigines (1836–1837) and the House of Lords inquiry into the 'present state of the islands of New Zealand' (1838), many humanitarians became concerned about the harmful effects on Māori of exposure to the various types of Europeans that arrived here. Missionaries intervened to discourage land sales, sometimes buying land themselves, at least partly in the role of trustees, to enable Māori to continue to retain access. They and others from New Zealand, Australia and England pressured the British Government to prevent the spread of immoral behaviour as well as the introduced diseases that were causing the population to markedly decline. Given Busby's inability to act, the preference was eventually for annexation and direct government.
1837 Britain to establish colony: From its experience in other parts of the world, the British Government had found that colonies involved great expense and difficulty. As a result it had initially tried to avoid assuming responsibility in New Zealand. Instead it had tried to influence the interaction of Māori and British settlers through the missionaries and by sending Busby to try to work with the rangatira (chiefs) in the north. Busby reported pessimistically on his efforts and on the increasing number of land transactions that British settlers and New South Wales speculators were making with local chiefs. British settlers at Kororareka (now called Russell) petitioned King William IV in March 1837 for protection and expressed their disapproval of Busby's proceedings. Officials at the Colonial Office agreed that 'the state of New Zealand is shewn (sic) to be lamentably bad, and Mr Busby has long been regarded as unfit for office'. In December 1837, understanding that colonisation 'to no small extent' was already happening in New Zealand, the British Government, led by Lord Melbourne and Lord Glenelg, decided that it had to intervene to ensure that colonisation was regulated and that land transactions that defrauded Māori were stopped. By mid-1839, the British Government had decided to annex at least part of New Zealand to New South Wales.
1838 – 39 Land-sharking peaks: Purchasers raced to buy as much land as they could. Apart from the few who wanted relatively small areas for their own settlement, large-scale speculators were putting pressure on Māori all over the country to enter into the flimsiest of deals, often for huge areas. Missionaries petitioned London to intervene to protect Māori. Some of the largest alleged purchases included: W.B. Rhodes, who claimed to have bought Kapiti, Banks Peninsula, Wellington and most of Hawke's Bay, the last for £150; Daniel Cooper, who claimed to have purchased 133,000 hectares of the Hawke's Bay, Cape Turnagain and Table Cape districts for £383; and especially the New Zealand Company, which claimed to have bought some 20 million acres, effectively the middle third of New Zealand from New Plymouth to Banks Peninsula, within only a few months.
1839 William Hobson appointed: With the New Zealand Company in the process of despatching colonists from London, the British Government decided to appoint naval officer Captain William Hobson as Consul. Hobson left England shortly after the New Zealand Company's first ship, the Tory. He was instructed to obtain sovereignty over all or part of New Zealand with the consent of a sufficient number of chiefs. New Zealand would come under the authority of Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, and Hobson himself would become Gipps's Lieutenant-Governor. Land-buying agents continued swarming over New Zealand in anticipation of purchasing opportunities being cut off by Hobson. It was later calculated that their combined claims amounted to more than New Zealand's total land area.
1839 First newspaper: Samuel Revans was a trained and experienced printer working with the New Zealand Company's London operations. When he decided to move to Wellington, he raised a loan from merchants backing the Company to buy the equipment and supplies for a printing establishment. The first issue of his newspaper, the New Zealand Gazette (August 1839), was actually published from the Company's London address before the New Zealand Company's first ships left for Petone. It folded in 1844.
1840 Prohibition on land purchases: Hobson travelled first to New South Wales to confer with his new superior, Governor Gipps. As Hobson left Sydney on 18 January 1840, Gipps, relying on his authority over British subjects at least, proclaimed a prohibition on any further private land purchases from Māori and that no existing claims would be recognised until they had been investigated by the authorities. Hobson repeated the proclamation in the Bay of Islands on 30 January 1840, soon after his arrival there. William Colenso, of the Church Missionary Society, printed both proclamations for Hobson, as he was the only printer at the Bay.
1840 Treaty of Waitangi signed: As soon as Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands, he met with Busby on the Herald, and Busby organised an invitation to the chiefs of the 'Confederation' (which had not actually met before) to meet Hobson, 'a rangatira [chief] from the Queen of England'. The meeting was to take place on Wednesday, 5th February. Meanwhile a draft of the Treaty was prepared in English and a copy of this text was provided to Henry Williams so that he could translate it for the meeting. At the meeting, the text, in both languages, was discussed before about 500 Māori and 200 Pākehā. Most of the speakers were suspicious of what was intended but the speech of Tamati Waka Nene is thought to have swayed the chiefs towards acceptance. Hobson expected several days of discussion and lobbying, by those in favour and those opposed, and discussion did continue overnight at what is now Te Tii Marae. On the following day, 6 February, the meeting was hurriedly reassembled, the text read again, and signing commenced with Hone Wiremu Hene Pokai (Hone Heke), one of the signatories to the 1835 Declaration. Some 40 chiefs signed on the first day. The Herald fired a 21-gun salute to mark the occasion. By September, more than 500 chiefs in different parts of the country had signed (including more than five women). Almost all of the chiefs signed copies of the Māori text of the Treaty. A number of districts were not approached and some notable chiefs refused to sign. For example, Te Heuheu from Ngāti Tūwharetoa (located around Taupō) refused 'to consent to the mana of a woman [the Queen] resting on these islands'.
1840 May Sovereignty proclaimed over New Zealand: In early March, while heading down the eastern coast to obtain further signatories for the Treaty, Hobson suffered a paralytic stroke and so he deputised a number of men (including seven missionaries) to collect more signatures from around the country on copies of the Treaty. Hobson wished to have signatures from the Cook Strait area (particularly that of Te Rauparaha) and so Henry Williams was despatched to get these, while other copies were sent to the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Tauranga, and Kaitaia. Major Bunbury, on the Herald, was sent to get signatures from the South Island, Stewart Island and Hawke's Bay. On 21 May, while this was still under way, Hobson proclaimed sovereignty over all of New Zealand: over the North Island on the basis of cession by the Treaty and the southern islands by right of discovery. Some historians suggest that he wanted to declare the Crown's authority over the whole country because he had learned of possible moves by the New Zealand Company to set up its own administration around Cook Strait. His second-in-command, Major Bunbury, also made proclamations of sovereignty over Stewart Island by right of discovery on 5 June, as no Māori could be found to sign the Treaty, and over the South Island on 17 June by virtue of cession.
1840 – 41 New Zealand becomes full colony: New Zealand was promoted to a colony in its own right, no longer answerable to Sydney, under Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840 and gazetted on 24 November. With communications by sailing ship taking months, Hobson only found out about this development on 30 April 1841, until then continuing to act as Lieutenant-Governor to New South Wales Governor Gipps.
1841 Native Protectorate Department created: In April 1840, while he was recuperating at Waimate, Hobson approached the CMS lay missionary George Clarke to take the position of Protector of Aborigines, initially a temporary position, which he accepted. When the new colony was established in 1841, Clarke filled the position as Chief Protector of Aborigines. Clarke and his staff were also given a second, conflicting, role as land purchasers for the Crown. Hobson was recorded in April 1840 as saying to Clarke: 'It may be necessary to appraise you that, in the discharge of your duties, you may be called upon to make journies into the interior and to negotiate the purchase of lands from the natives.' Although Clarke managed to persuade the Governor to free him of the land purchasing responsibilities, which clearly conflicted with his protective role, his sub-protectors still retained their dual roles. Several sub-protectors worked actively for Māori interests, most prominently the very young George Clarke Jnr, who was an advocate for Māori before Spain's Land Claims Commission and who investigated the Wairau Incident. In 1846, Governor George Grey, suspicious of anyone, especially missionaries, who exercised influence over Māori apart from himself, disbanded the Native Protectorate and appointed a Native Secretary to implement his instructions.
1842 Commission investigates early land purchases: Following Lord Normanby's instructions, and as proclaimed by Governor Gipps in Sydney and Hobson when he arrived in New Zealand, three Land Claims Commissioners (M. Richmond, E. L. Godfrey and W. Spain) were appointed to investigate all pre-Treaty land purchases made by Europeans. If the Commissioners concluded that a purchase was made in good faith, they could validate it and award a Crown Grant limited to 2560 acres (4 square miles). If the purchase was invalid or exceeded that size, the excess land in question was not returned to the original Māori owners but became Crown land. One Land Claims Commissioner, English lawyer William Spain, was appointed especially to investigate the huge purchases claimed by the New Zealand Company. Over several years, Spain determined that most of the New Zealand Company purchases in Wellington and elsewhere were invalid but not all his recommendations were acted upon. There was subsequently a shift from investigating the validity of the Company's land claims to arbitrating agreements with Māori to allow settlement in Wellington to go ahead.
1842 Māori deemed under Crown authority: In 1842, a longstanding struggle between the Māori of Hauraki and Tauranga broke out in a fresh wave of violence. The Government could do little about it, and the Attorney-General advanced the argument that the chiefs who had not signed the Treaty (as was the case with Taraia, one of the leaders in the fighting) were perhaps not bound by the Crown's authority anyway. This argument was immediately rejected in London. Since Hobson's declaration of the Queen's sovereignty in May 1840 (or at least since his proclamation was gazetted in London in October 1840) all of New Zealand and all of its inhabitants were considered to be under British sovereignty. This did not mean, however, that British law had to be imposed immediately upon Māori. Some matters, such as warfare, cannibalism and slavery, were supposed to be suppressed as soon as practicable, but other customs could be left to the influence of missionaries and increasing contact with white settlement.
1843 The Wairau Incident: The settlers in the New Zealand Company town of Nelson were keen to expand their lands into the Wairau Valley, ahead of the Land Commissioner's inquiry into the area. The local Māori, particularly Ngāti Toa, rejected any claim that they had already sold that area to the Company. One group, led by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata, disrupted a survey party and burned their huts. In response, a party led by local magistrate Thompson and company representative Captain Arthur Wakefield set out to arrest the chiefs. When they met at Tuamarina, Te Rauparaha denied destroying anything that was not his own property. Thompson became enraged, and when he called his men forward, a musket went off, killing Te Rangihaeata's wife. In the ensuing battle, 22 Europeans were killed, including those who surrendered, in utu (satisfaction) for the Māori deaths. The settlers were outraged and there was widespread hysteria that Ngāti Toa would attack elsewhere, especially in Wellington. But incoming Governor Robert FitzRoy took the view that the settler posse had brought it on themselves by foolish and provocative actions and inflicted no punishment upon Ngāti Toa.
1844 War in the north: Many chiefs had suffered economically when customs duties were levied on ships calling at the Bay of Islands, raising the cost of goods and reducing the flow of trade. They were further disadvantaged in 1841 with the relocation of the colonial capital to Auckland. The new Governor, Robert FitzRoy (1844-45), waived Crown pre-emption (the Crown's exclusive right of land purchase), partly to appease Heke and other northern chiefs, who wanted no constraint on whom they could deal with. Heke was incensed that the Union Jack, a symbol of British government, flew over Kororāreka (the town now called Russell), without the former 'New Zealand Standard' of 1834 beside it. As a result, he had the flagpole chopped down four times in 1844-1845. Some considered this a truly patriotic gesture on Heke's part. On the last occasion, the township of Kororāreka was sacked and pillaged, and most buildings, except the church buildings, were burned. The townsfolk were evacuated to Auckland. Fighting between British troops (aided by some Māori, such as Nene) and the forces under Heke and Kawiti broke out and on 15 January 1845, a proclamation was issued in both languages offering a reward for Heke's arrest. FitzRoy was recalled, to be replaced at the end of 1845 by the military governor George Grey. Māori fortifications and tactics enabled the forces under Heke and Kawiti to defeat the British troops, and when they gave Governor Grey an empty victory at Ruapekapeka, by simply withdrawing, the tactic led to stalemate.
1846 ‘Surplus’ land taken: In 1846, the British Government issued a self-governing charter to the colony and instructed that all Māori land ownership be registered. Any lands deemed to be unused were to become Crown land. The pre-emption clause in Article 2 of the Treaty, requiring Māori to sell, only to the Crown or its agent, was reinstated by Governor Grey after being waived two years earlier by his predecessor, FitzRoy. Crown pre-emption meant exclusive right of purchase, not first option. Crown agents developed a range of frequently dubious practices to persuade Māori to sell, and the Crown monopoly meant that they could offer whatever the Government was prepared to pay, not a market rate. Governor Grey embarked on wholesale land purchases in the South Island, the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay. As complaints increased, the Government itself was the arbiter as well as the defendant. Māori criticised a system that did not allow them to lease out their own land, or receive market prices, while many Pākehā wished to purchase directly.
1847 First dairy export: Dairying started in New Zealand around 1815, when Samuel Marsden brought the first cows to his Northland mission. However, within 30 years the Pākehā community's appetite for dairy products ensured that the practice had become widespread in both the North and South Islands. By the 1840s, dairy products were produced on a relatively large scale. Herds on Banks Peninsula were milked for the production of butter and cheeses that were shipped to Wellington and various whaling stations around the country. Farming success allowed cheese to be exported to Australia from 1847. Cheese was a durable product, and butter could also be transported reliably in salt water preservative.

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