Search results

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.