Lecture 13- Opportunity and Disappointment (1840 -1863)

Question 1

1840s Māori economy transformed - Economy grew via

Answer 1

Food and cropping (potatoes, maize, wheat, flour mills)

• Trade , food (vegetables), livestock (pigs, sheep), fish, timber, flax
• Transportation (shipping, ferries, guides)
• Labour/workforce, agriculture, roading, flax preparation, shipping/port workers
• Each tribal area has different local conditions

Question 2

Crown Colony period 1840-1852
Who were the governor’s?

Answer 2

NZ does not have an elected government so the governors rule –> growing interactions with governors dealing with Maori.

-Governor William Hobson (1840-1842) -sick so doesn’t last long.
-Governor Robert Fitzroy (1843-1845)
-Governor George Grey (1845-1853)

Question 3

Deeds of Purchase

Answer 3

-Each deed of purchase contained its own conditions.

-Each purchase had its own issues.

-Some had clauses about Reserves being created for various iwi.

-Effect extinguishment of Māori title in favour of a title derived from the Crown (Crown grants)

Question 4

Social aspects of Aotearoa 1840-1860 (Māori)

Answer 4

-Māori adopt western technology for agriculture and diversify their lands to grow crops, establish orchards, stock their lands, amongst their other traditional growing methods.

-Increasing unease at balance of power shifts, land loss and increase of Pākehā population –> lost control over NZ to the settlers. e.g. language barriers created (English became more dominant).

-1857-8 Non Māori population of approx 59,000 overtakes Māori Population of approx 56,000.

Question 5

Social aspects of Aotearoa 1840-1860 (Pākehā)

Answer 5

-Major settlements of Pākehā population include Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin.

-Wellington, New Plymouth and Nelson were established by the New Zealand Company (a British based immigrant
company)

-Intermarriage between Pākehā and Māori.

Question 6

Governor Robert Fitzroy (1843-1845)

Answer 6

-Had to contend with the Wairau Affair

-Northern war with Hone Heke and Kawiti

-He waivered the ‘preemption clause’ in the Treaty –> Preemption clause: If Maori wanted to sell to land to the Europeans it could only be the crown.
–> Governor Robert Fitzroy waived this due to the crown being broke at the time.

Question 7

The Cook Strait (Sheet) Rev Henry Williams. Who signed it?

Answer 7

Te Rauparaha signs the Treaty

Question 8

Wairau Affair

Answer 8

• 1843 Nelson settlers wanted to survey land that they claimed were theirs (claimed they had brought the Blenheim area).
• Settlers were too impatient to wait for the Lands Claims Commission so they went ahead and surveyed
• Te Rauparaha and nephew Te Rangihaeata (Ngati Toa) took issue with settlers and sacked them from their land –> escorted them back to Nelson with warnings x2 times
• Nelson Settlers came back for a third time and there was an altercation where the wife of Rangihaeata’s got killed by musket fire. Governor Fitzroy condemned the settlers.

Question 9

Wars in Northland 1845-1846 (Hone Heke & Kawiti)

Answer 9

Hone Heke + Kawiti = main maori chiefs invovled

-Flagstaff at Kororareka (Russell) the symbol of Britain, was cut down -> first attack on british settlement by hone heke and ka whiti. This attack was driven by major concerns that the Treaty had not brought benefits

-In fact seemed to have brought harms int he area = Capital had been shifted from Kororareka (Russell) in 1841. Port duties were collected by the government and not local Māori. Demand for Māori goods and services had declined.

-Hone heke and kawhiti realised that sovereignty had come
over the land. Wanted sovereignty removed.

-Major attack= Ruapekapeka Pa (December 1845 - January 1846) which was a fortified maori city. Drawn out conflict -> kawiti’s pa

• Spanned the end of fitzroy’s governance into grey -> it was grey who order troops to occupy Ruapekapeka Pa

Question 10

Governor George Grey (1845-1853)

Answer 10

-Called to Aotearoa to deal
with continued hostilities
between Māori and
European settlers

-Given resources from
Britain

-A master politician: charismatic made lots of promises to settlers that he would solve all the problems. Play people against each other.

-Established a constitution for representative government General Assembly (Parliament)

Question 11

Land Conflicts and Grey

Answer 11

• Conflicts over land title in Blenheim, Taranaki and Wellington (disputed purchases)
• Occupied Kawiti’s pa in Northland with troops (Kawiti’s pa) -> in response to the taking down on the flagstaff in russell.
• He seized Te Rauparaha and imprisoned him without trial
  –> both kawiti and Te Rauparaha were very powerful chiefs : giving warning to anyone that if they cross him they will suffer.
• Grey got Williams sacked when spoke out against him. Williams was a high up missionary Settlers started to get annoyed because Grey was basically a dictator, they wanted a change to an elected government –> 1852 Constitution set up two provincial governments and a central government (Māori responsibility shifted from the governor to the central settler government)

Question 12

New Zealand Constitution Act 1852
(passed by the British Parliament)

Answer 12

Set up a General Assembly (Colonial legislature) this consisted of:
-Governor (representative of the british crown -> could override the decisions of the rest of the general assembly)
-Upper Chamber (Legislative Council - these were appointed rather than elected members. This was abolished in 1950 leaving just the lower chamber)
-Lower Chamber (House of Representatives: Elected members by the public)

Question 13

New Zealand Constitution Act 1852
(passed by the British Parliament) -> provincial government

Answer 13

-Set up Provincial Government

-Elected Provincial Councils (in charge of regional areas: took care of day to day issues)

-Headed by Superintendents (elected by the residents of the area)

-Abolished in 1876 (this centralised power under the national government)

-Provincial Governments
supplemented revenue through Maori land sales (sometimes leading to conflict)

-A number of provincial
councillors (including
superintendents) were also MPs i.e. part of the national government -> allowing some coordination between the two levels

Question 14

Māori voters 1853 -> for the house of representatives

Answer 14

Elections for the House of representatives in 1853 (remember New Zealand constitution act passed in 1852)

-100 Māori voted in Auckland in 1853.

-Dunedin politicians challenged Maori electors
on the voter rolls (i.e. they contested the maori right to vote)

Question 15

Māori voters 1858 (wellington provincial council elections)

Answer 15

-1858 Wellington Provincial Council
elections

-Over 100 Māori tried to register to vote but
only 12 were allowed after evidence was heard
on the value of their homes

Question 16

Constitutional Government
Governor Thomas Gore-Browne (1853-1859)

Answer 16

Governor i.e. representative of the crown in the newly established new zealand government -> was not elected by the people

-Had to deal with a General Assembly

-Had to deal with Provincial government

-Pressure from settlers for more land

-Saw the emergence of the Maori King Movement

-Problems in Taranaki LAND

Question 17

Overall theme around land… Issues with the land purchases…

Answer 17

-European settlers want land of Maori
—-> shifts in ownership reflect shifts in power.

-Part of the deed of purchase (conditions) for land sales : the Crown as part of the transaction had to create reserves for sellers (to protect certain areas). The crown never came back to create the reserves didn’t fulfill it’s promises.

Maori started to petition the crown to come back and create the reserves which they didn’t rectify fast enough/ still haven’t –> more and more of the land taken and destroyed by settlers.

Maori become landless in their areas. By 1860 Maori in the North very reluctant to sell their land because warned by those in the south that the crown does not fulfil its promises.

Question 18

Land issues around the south

Answer 18

Targeted initially to buy as much land in the south as possible

Everything but the wakapuaka was purchased

Some overlap in purchases (no exact boundaries of areas in colonial times)

Part of the deed of purchase (conditions) for land sales : the Crown as part of the transaction had to create reserves for sellers (to protect certain areas). The crown never came back to create the reserves didn’t fulfill it’s promises.

Maori started to petition the crown to come back and create the reserves which they didn’t rectify fast enough/ still haven’t –> more and more of the land taken and destroyed by settlers.

Maori became landless.