The Treaty of Waitangi; or, how New Zealand became a British Colony

The Ambassador to the west was Captain Symonds,¹⁰⁹ an officer of the British Army, who immediately on receipt of his instructions proceeded to Manakau and there, aided by Mr. Hamlin, a Catechist of the Church Missionary Society, summoned at short notice a meeting of the chiefs. The Missionary explained to the assembled warriors the views of the British Government, and solicited their adherence to the treaty, but the opponents of the measure had been in advance of its advocates, and prejudice was already in the air. Amongst the most active in his hostility was the vacillating Rewa, who having reluctantly signed the document at Waitangi, had speedily recanted.¹¹⁰ He now sought to make up for his apparent desertion from the ranks of the opponents by the violence of his attacks upon the Government, and Captain Symonds found the chief had been so successful in his misrepresentations that he was not able to do more at the first meeting than to dispel some of the doubts which the ingeniousness of Rewa had created in the minds of all. A few days later the chiefs were again in council, when new forces were gathered from the Waikato, Taranaki, and Taupo. With these Rewa had less influence, with the result that some signatures, and several promises were obtained from amongst the most influential men.

But now a new species of opposition was developed. The haughty Te Wherowhero, the potential king of the Waikato, felt that he had been slighted in not being bidden to consult with the Pakeha Governor ere this. Why had he been left to this late hour, and who were these who had been placed before him? His dignity was severely wounded; his aristocratic soul rebelled against such scurvy treatment, and in a fit of pique he wrapped his blanket about him and refused to sign.

Feeling that he must be satisfied for the present with whatever measure of success he had achieved, Captain Symonds left Manukau on April 3, and hauling his boats across the portage which divides the Manakau from the waters of the Waikato, he proceeded down the Awaroa river to the Church Mission station at the Waikato Heads. Here he was received with the utmost cordiality by the Rev. Mr. Maunsell¹¹¹ who was waiting his coming with no small anxiety. Matters had almost reached a crisis with the Missionary, who in the previous month had taken advantage of a large gathering of natives for religious purposes to introduce the subject of the treaty, a copy of which had already been forwarded to him by the Lieutenant-Governor. The project had been received by the natives in the most friendly spirit, and signatures had been obtained with the utmost alacrity. One important feature, unobserved at the time, had, however, been omitted. No presents had been sent to the Missionary to distribute amongst the signatories. Exception had not been taken to this apparent lack of hospitality at the moment, but word had come into the settlement from the north that all who had signed the treaty at the Bay of Islands, and at Hokianga had been paid with the Governor's blanket. The insidious nature of this treatment had just dawned upon them when Captain Symonds arrived. The whole settlement was in a state of wildest excitement. Their Missionary had deceived them; payment had been withheld; their signatures had been wrongly obtained. To put matters right they loudly demanded the return of the offending paper that they might tear it to bits and scatter it to the winds. Symonds was, however, able to quieten the tumult with timely explanations, and, what was more to the purpose, distributed a number of blankets amongst the chiefs, promising a similar gift to all others who would subscribe to the terms of the treaty.

The expedition displayed by Mr. Maunsell, but which had come so perilously near wrecking his own influence, proved an unexpected boon to Captain Symonds, who on examination of the signatures thus obtained discovered that with few exceptions all the influential chiefs as far south as Mokau, had acknowledged the sovereignty of the Queen. These few were resident in the districts of Aotea and Kawhia, and were within the sphere wherein was labouring the Rev. John Whiteley,¹¹² of the Wesleyan Mission. To him accordingly Captain Symonds wrote, "being well assured of the disposition on the part of the Wesleyan Mission to support the Government by every exertion in its power," and confided to him the execution of that portion of his instructions which he deemed could be more expeditiously carried out by the Missionary than by himself.

On April 18 Captain Symonds returned to Manakau, and there obtained seven more signatures. Te Wherowhero¹¹³ was still obdurate, though manifesting no ill-will towards the Government. His native pride had been hurt, and time had not yet healed his injured spirit.

In these latter negotiations Captain Symonds laboured under the considerable disadvantage that he was unable to procure the services of a competent interpreter, Mr. Hamlin¹¹⁴ being absent on duties incidental to his station. The lack of all public ceremonial was also to his disadvantage, the pageant of which ever appeals with persuasive force to the impressionable mind of the savage; while the surroundings were not altogether without the suggestion that the crozier was still secretly opposing the Crown.

For the purpose of preserving the consecutive nature of our narrative it will be convenient at this point to digress for a moment, and in that time discuss a debatable point which must ere now have occurred to the reader, viz. what was Bishop Pompallier's attitude towards the treaty? To aid our judgment in this connection two classes of evidence are available, – that of the Protestant Missionaries and the official despatches of those engaged in the promotion of the treaty, on the one side, and the personal statement of his position by the Bishop on the other. Bishop Pompallier had landed at Hokianga in 1838 for the purpose of establishing a branch of the Roman Catholic Oceanic Mission, of which he had been appointed Vicar Apostolic. We have his assurance, which may be accepted without reservation, that he hoped to labour in a part of the country where he would not come into conflict with other Missions, and it came to him as a surprise, and probably as a deep disappointment, when he discovered that the existing Missions had so far covered the country that no such isolation was possible at Hokianga, upon which he had determined as the centre of his operations. But having come he decided to remain; and his advent was a bitter trial to the representatives of the Protestant Missions, who foresaw in it a serious interruption of their work by the introduction to the Maori of doubts and controversies which, while disturbing, were not essential either to their civilisation or to their soul's salvation.¹¹⁵ Exactly what they anticipated would occur, did occur, with the result that the animosities of religious rivalry were kindled in a way that had never been known between the Anglican and Wesleyan Missions; and the absurdity was not infrequently witnessed of Maoris confidently discussing matters of dogma which for centuries have baffled solution at the hands of trained theologians. The effect of this was to sow the seeds of bitterness in the hearts of the Protestant Missionaries, and there is sometimes noticeable a dearth of charity in their references to the Bishop which unfortunately is not singular in Church history.

We may, therefore, discount on the grounds of prejudice their accusations against the "Catholic Bishop" as much as we please, but we have still to account for the awkward fact, to which Mr. Colenso has drawn pointed attention, that the most violent opposition to the treaty at Waitangi came from the chiefs living under the religious guidance of Bishop Pompallier. The same circumstance was noted by Captain Hobson at Hokianga, by Captain Symonds at Manakau, and by Major Bunbury at Tauranga. Was, then, this widespread disaffection amongst the Catholic converts merely a coincidence? or was it the fruit of suggestion?

It has to be admitted that whatever feelings animated the Protestant Missionaries, at least Captain Hobson was not the victim of religious prejudice. From the first he adopted an attitude of most respectful deference towards the Bishop, a partiality which the Frenchman was not slow to observe and comment upon. When, therefore, the Lieutenant-Governor, took the responsibility of stating in his despatch to Sir George Gipps (February 17, 1840), "The influence against me was easily traceable to the foreign Bishop of the Roman Catholic persuasion," he is at least entitled to the credit – considering the character of the man – of our believing that he would not have made so bold an assertion had he not been fortified by the conviction that there was evidence to support it. The same measure of confidence must be accorded to Captain Symonds, a military officer of, so far as we can judge, the highest integrity. In reporting the result of his mission at Manakau he records the fact that "Rewa the principal follower of the Roman Catholic Bishop, exerted all his influence against me," and that on his return to this settlement from the Waikato Heads a few days later, he was still unable to secure the signatures of certain chiefs, a failure which he attributed "partly to the Bishop's influence." Again bluff Major Bunbury tells us that when at the Otumoetai Pa, near Tauranga, "Another chief expressed some indignation because the Christian chiefs had not, as he said, met them. I presume he meant those from the other pa where Mr. Stack's influence was supposed to extend more than his own, and where a Roman Catholic Residency and the Catholic Bishop were supposed to have more influence."

Whether this failure on the part of the Christian natives to co-operate with the residents of Otumoetai in the consideration of the treaty meant their active hostility, or merely a negative indifference to the proposals of the Crown, is not clear, nor is it certain to what extent the influence of the Missionary Bishop and his assistant contributed to either of these conditions, if either existed. Certain it is, however, that neither exerted themselves to aid the consummation of the treaty. Of this fact Bishop Pompallier has made no secret so far as he himself was concerned, and it is unlikely that his clergy would adopt an attitude different to his own. Neutrality he makes the buttress of his position, professing a total disregard for politics; his whole concern being the spreading of the Church's influence and the refutation of heresy. Of this, a perusal of the Bishop's own statement is the least devious road to proof:

On January 184 °Captain Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands with the qualification of English Consul and Vice-Governor of New Zealand, under the immediate control of the Governor of Sydney in New Holland. The corvette, the Herald, brought Captain Hobson and all the members of his approaching administration. The Protestant Missionaries spread the report amongst the natives that this time the Catholic Bishop was going to be taken out of the country by the English man-o'-war which lay at anchor off the coast. They said also that I would not dare to appear at the public meetings that the new Governor was going to hold with the Maori chiefs and the whites, to talk over with them his plans for the Colonial administration of New Zealand. All the natives in the country were astonished both at the arrival of a strange Governor, and at the strange reports that were flying about. The day after his arrival, the Maori chiefs received printed letters from Captain Hobson, inviting them to meet at a place in the Bay called "Waitangi," where a treaty was to be read to them in their own language, and afterwards signed by them. Many of the Catholic chiefs came to consult me, above all the great chief Rewa. They asked me what was to be done under the circumstances in which their country was placed, and whether they ought or not to sign. I answered them that these were political matters which were outside my province. I was only in this country to pasture souls in the word of God, and direct them in the faith, morality, and the Catholic discipline, confer the sacraments of salvation on persons of whatsoever nationality who should have recourse to my ministry in a proper disposition, and that there ended my divine mission. It was for them to determine what they might desire to do with their national sovereignty; whether to keep it or to transfer it to a foreign nation; they were therefore at liberty to sign or not, to sign the treaty which was going to be put before them; that for myself and my clergy we were prepared to exercise our ministry of salvation for those who signed in the same manner as for those who did not sign. In a word, we were prepared to instruct them in the faith whether they continued to be New Zealanders or became English. Now in this way I kept myself entirely aloof from politics, and the people were at liberty to do as seemed best to them, with regard to their social state of life, and I remained free in what concerned my ministry for the spiritual and Christian life they had to follow in the Catholic Church. I went dressed in my Episcopal cassock, to the great meeting of the chiefs of the Bay of Islands with the whites, over which Captain Hobson presided. His Excellency was surrounded by the officers of the corvette and by a number of Protestant Missionaries. My coming was a great surprise to the latter, and to the natives who had heard that I should never dare to appear there. Captain Hobson received me with much civility and respect, and caused me to be put in a place of distinction. A political treaty which the English Government wished to conclude with the Maoris was read and explained to them. By virtue of this treaty the Maoris became English subjects; they remained masters of their landed property, but they were not allowed to sell, as formerly to private purchasers. If they desired to sell any of their land they could only do so with the consent of the Colonial Government.

While the speeches were being made on behalf of Captain Hobson and the chiefs of the Maori tribes I remained silent; I had nothing to say; they were simply about political matters. One question, however, interested me deeply, it was that of religious freedom about which no one in any way seemed to trouble themselves. Before the last meeting broke up, and it became a question of signing the treaty I broke silence. I addressed Captain Hobson, begging him to make known to all the people the principles of European civilisation which obtain in Great Britain, and which would guarantee free and equal protection to the Catholics as to every other religion in New Zealand. My demand was immediately acceded to by Captain Hobson, who made a formal notification of it to all the assembled people, to the great satisfaction of all the Catholic chiefs and tribes, who triumphed in the fact of my presence in the face of the Protestant Missionaries, and at the speedy compliance with the few words I had spoken. As to the political treaty, was it or was it not understood by the natives? That is a mystery difficult to solve. The result was that some chiefs signed it and some did not. But the Catholic religion gained instead of losing its dignity and its influence over the minds of the people. When a certain number of natives had signed the treaty the sovereignty of England over the whole of New Zealand was declared by a salvo of artillery fired by the corvette Herald. The English flag floated over the country, and Mr. Hobson took the title of Vice-Governor of New Zealand. As for myself, I exercised my ministry as freely as before over all parts of this large archipelago. The Governor seemed to have a particular regard for the Catholic Bishop. His Excellency promised that my future missionary vessel should be free from all imposts, and that everything that came to me from beyond the country for the purpose of my labours should be free from duty. My position at this time disappointed not a little the ill-will of those who had spread sinister reports about myself and my clergy, some weeks before. The people became more and more confident in the idea that Protestantism had always been deceiving them. They saw, moreover, that we had come to New Zealand but for them and the ends of salvation, in favour of every soul that lived in the country, not troubling ourselves as to what national flag they belonged. They saw in our hands but one standard, that of the cross that leads to Heavenly glory. At one time they had said the Catholic had come to seize upon the sovereignty of New Zealand, and they beheld him remaining and working just as before, after possession had been taken. Many natives in their uprightness said, "It was all very well for the Protestant Ministers to tell us so much about the Catholic Bishop taking our country, but on the contrary, it was themselves, in their own nation who took it from us." From all these new circumstances there resulted on the part of the people, English and Maoris, but especially the latter, more esteem, more confidence, more attention for the Bishop and the Catholic Clergy.¹¹⁶

The Bishop's publicly expressed views receive valuable confirmation from Captain Lavaud, of the French frigate L'Aube which reached the Bay of Islands in July 1840. After paying his respects to the Lieutenant-Governor, the Captain proceeded to the Bishop's house and there had an interview with the prelate, the substance of which he subsequently reported in the following terms to the French Minister of Marine:

I arrived at the Bishop's only in the afternoon, so long is the passage from Russell-town to Kororareka against contrary winds and tide. I was curious and impatient to hear what he might have to communicate to me. Still I was reassured as to the situation in which he found himself placed with regard to the authorities, by the very pleasing manner in which Mr. Hobson¹¹⁷ had just spoken of him to me: the feelings of esteem and consideration which he expressed; the respect his name evoked from all those present, and the well-deserved praise they gave to his character and his tolerance. Compared with the Anglican Missionaries he was the real good man, the friend of the poor and of the savages, having no other ambition than to call to the Catholic faith and to civilisation the natives, to whose happiness he consecrates his existence, hoping to receive in the other world a reward which his adversaries prefer to taste in this one. Their evangelic labours are thus always accompanied by schemes of aggrandisement of luxury, and of riches, things in which they have until now made considerable progress. To stop them nothing less was necessary than the prohibition of the Queen (of England) forbidding them henceforth to acquire land from the natives, and limiting the holdings to 2500 acres. These gentlemen were indeed not slow to notice that though they were occult instruments of British power in New Zealand, they were its first victims. One must not, however, believe that the Anglican, Wesleyan, Methodist, and other Missionaries occupy themselves exclusively, and all of them, with speculations and means of making their fortunes; they also occupy themselves with the instruction of the people, but I shall have opportunity later on of returning to this subject. On my arrival at Bishop Pompallier's I received the marks of kindness which that excellent pastor lavishes on all his fellow-countrymen. He thanked me more than it was necessary for him to do for all my care and attention towards the priests during the voyage, and he did not conceal from me that this little increase of subjects sent out to him by the Marist community had been so necessary for so long a time that it was no longer by twos, but by tens and even twenties that priests ought to be sent out to him to help him to save the people of New Zealand, of whom 25,000 were already on the way to Catholicism. He also told me how grateful he was to the French Government for the protection it granted him, as well as to his mission in these seas. He spoke to me of the acts of kindness of the King, of the Queen and the Royal family, and principally of the interest H.R.H. Madam Adelaide was taking in the success of his labours. I took great pleasure in listening to Monsignor Pompallier on this subject, but I had not lost sight of the fact that he must have other things whereof to inform me. I, too, since I had seen Captain Hobson, was rather eager for news, and curious to know the mission of the Herald. I therefore profited by the first opportunity I had to ask the Bishop to speak to me about the political events of this country, but Monsignor is like they all are, he loves his Mission, his successes, his hopes, and it was with difficulty he decided upon changing the subject of conversation, but at last he did it most graciously. I learned thus from him, that from the month of February 1839, Captain Hobson, who had arrived some days previously in the Bay of Islands, with the title of "Consul" had assumed the rank of Lieutenant-Governor of the Islands of New Zealand conferred on him by the gracious will of the Queen; that an assembly presided over by him, and attended by most of the great chiefs of the North Island, as well as several Europeans of distinction, Monsignor himself included, had taken place, the aim of which was to make known to the New Zealand chiefs that the Queen would grant her powerful protection to the New Zealand tribes who had solicited it, only under the condition that the treaty proposed to them would inform them that H.B.M. would extend her sovereignty over the Islands of New Zealand only as far as these chiefs would consent to sign it. I here transcribe this official document, yet but little known, and so singularly reproduced by some persons.¹¹⁸

It will be noticed that at the Assembly of which I have just spoken, which was held in Busby's in Wai-Tanghi, there was not one single Frenchman, except Monsignor. They thought by their absence (at least that was their intention) to protest against what was taking place. The Bishop who certainly was not obliged to inform me of the motives that made him act differently, told me, however, that having received a special invitation from Mr. Hobson, he thought he ought not to refuse his presence, inasmuch as his Mission was quite a spiritual one, and that his being an ecclesiast put him outside of all politics, and that it was most necessary for the success of Catholicism in this country that all should be convinced that in that respect he was perfectly indifferent, that every day he was trying to avoid giving his conduct the slightest doubt of the purity of his intentions, that besides in the assembly Captain Hobson had in his address to the New Zealand chiefs, of whom several were Catholics, informed them that Bishop Pompallier, pointing him out, would remain amongst them, that he would be protected there, as well as the religion he preached, in the same manner as the British Missionaries and their co-religionists. At this assembly the New Zealanders appeared uneasy and anxious to know how the meeting would end, during which several speeches were delivered by the chiefs, partly to the Governor and partly to the New Zealanders themselves. At one moment it was feared the treaty would be rejected. Several chiefs spoke against it, and one of the most prominent, Rewa-Rewa, went as far as to say, "Let us drive away the white chief. What does he come here for? To take away from us the liberty you are enjoying. Do not believe his words. Do you not see that, later on, he will use you to break stones on the roads?"

This chief belonged to the Catholic religion, but his allocution was opposed by two of the principal chiefs of the Island, and of the district of Hokiangha, as well as by Pomare the nephew of the celebrated chief of that name of Kawa-Kawa, in the Bay of Islands, all partisans of the Williams Mission. This allocution (Rewa's) did not have the success he expected for it, and the acceptance took place, although without enthusiasm, by the majority of the members of the assembly. Several gave their adhesion by signing the treaty, others retired without signing, and already on the following day, after a few small gifts, the sovereignty of H.M. the Queen of England was proclaimed over the North Island of New Zealand. Eye-witnesses report that this declared sovereignty is a conjuring trick on the part of Captain Hobson, but in that case, at least we must admit that the trick was played rapidly and skilfully enough. Other official declarations were made on the same subject.

Here then are the facts – conflicting it is true – from which no doubt conclusions equally conflicting will be drawn. Having regard to the high character of the Bishop it is inconceivable that he would desire to do anything but that which was right. It is, however, equally possible that he experienced a difficulty in completely suppressing his national feelings, and that he had unconsciously created for himself the paradoxical position of being neutral as an ecclesiastic, and yet hostile as a Frenchman.

Along the populous shores of the Bay of Plenty, and in the interior behind Tauranga, Hobson had as his allies the Revs. Brown and Stack, while William Williams¹¹⁹ carried the treaty from hapu to hapu through the rugged country on the eastern coast between East Cape and Ahuriri.¹²⁰ In a like manner upon Missionaries Chapman and Morgan devolved the onerous task of bringing the turbulent Arawas at Rotorua into line. The manner in which these minor envoys laboured, and the extent to which they succeeded is modestly told in their letters to the Lieutenant-Governor; but this much must in justice be said, that though their proceedings were necessarily less picturesque in their setting, and less sensational in their climax, they were equally sincere with those who garnered in the wider fields, and who in consequence have loomed more prominently in the historical perspective.

A mission upon a more extensive scale and one fraught with more important issues was entrusted to the Rev. Henry Williams. To this virile Missionary was allotted the task of bearding the lion in his den, for the Lieutenant-Governor had every reason to believe that the officers of the New Zealand Company would use whatever influence they possessed to prevent the consummation of a policy which in its ultimate effects they surmised would be so prejudicial to their own. For this assumption events proved there was only too much justification. The Government had, however, put its hand to the plough; and in Mr. Williams, Colonel Wakefield found a match both in determination and diplomacy.

A small schooner, the Ariel, owned and sailed by Captain Clayton, was chartered for the journey, and late in March they set off, calling at Tauranga and Poverty Bay en route, leaving copies of the treaty for local circulation as they went. The Ariel reached Port Nicholson late in April, her coming being by no means a welcome circumstance to the principal agent of the Company. The first meeting between Colonel Wakefield and the Missionary took place on the Saturday after arrival, at the house of Mr. Hunter, and was more animated than friendly. The former had either not yet received – or chose to ignore – the private instructions of his superiors in England, to afford Captain Hobson all the aid and assistance in his power towards the attainment of British sovereignty.¹²¹

For ten days the Colonel doggedly held on his course of opposition, during which time there was a frequent clash of wordy weapons, the soldier seeking to vindicate the independence of his settlement on the ground that they had acquired their rights from the chiefs prior to the intervention of the Crown; the missionary maintaining that no such rights could be acquired by British subjects without the consent of the Sovereign.

Whether or not the constitutional nature of this argument appealed to the Colonel, it is impossible to say. In all probability it did not, but there are ample reasons for concluding that the governing influence in his conduct was a desire to obtain possession of a block of forty acres of land in what was then the most valuable portion of the infant settlement of Wellington, and to which Mr. Williams had acquired an undoubted title. Wakefield's subsequent actions at least indicate that his surrender did not carry with it his conversion to the treaty, which he still strove to persuade himself could not affect the purchases of the Company. But whatever the considerations that influenced him, just as the Missionary was preparing to depart in disgust, he at length¹²² consented to withdraw his objections to the chiefs considering the treaty, and retracting what Mr. Williams has been pleased to designate as his "insolent" remarks.

The character of the terms in which the Colonel was likely to address the Missionary may be judged from a paragraph in a letter indicted by him to his directors on May 25, 1840, in which he declares: "I cannot express to you the feelings of repugnance entertained by the respectable colonists who came into contact with Mr. Williams, towards him, on account of his selfish views, his hypocrisy, and unblushing rapaciousness. He frequently said that finding I had been before him in the purchase of land in the Strait without consulting him, he had endeavoured to do the best for himself, and had disparaged the Company and its settlers to the natives. On the whole, it was only by a great effort, and in the hope of benefiting the colony that I could bring myself to hold any terms with this worst of land-sharks."¹²³

The hostility of the Company's principal agent once removed, thirty-two of the chiefs signed the treaty readily enough on the 29th of the month, the impression made on Mr. Williams's mind being "that they were much gratified that protection was now afforded to them in common with Her Majesty's subjects."