Canterbury Association

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Advertisement from the Canterbury Association, addressed to the working class

The Canterbury Association was an association supported by members of the British Parliament , the British aristocracy and the Anglican Church , which was founded in the mid-19th century to organize a major settlement project in what was then the British colony of New Zealand .

history

Based on the ideas of the colonization theorist Edward Gibbon Wakefield, another group of influential people from politics, the nobility and the church formed in England in early 1848 , led by the Archbishop of Canterbury , John Bird Sumner , to initiate another settlement project in New Zealand. Previously, the New Zealand Company, newly formed in 1839, had established settlements in Wellington (1840), Wanganui (1840), New Plymouth (1841) and Nelson (1842). The desire of the gentlemen to implement a settlement project under the name Canterbury on the North Island of the New Zealand colony led to the establishment of the Canterbury Association on March 27, 1848. The association was officially registered via the Royal Charter on November 13, 1849.

Map from an 1850 publication by the Canterbury Association

The driving force behind the settlement project was Wakefield, supported by the lawyer and colonialist John Robert Godley . In May 1848 the captain and surveyor Joseph Thomas , who had already gained recognition for his work with the New Zealand Company, was sent to New Zealand to find suitable land for the Canterbury settlement project . The then governor George Edward Gray offered the Canterbury Association the Wairarapa region for the settlement project. But Thomas was not satisfied with that, having heard that there was more promising land to be found on the South Island in the hinterland of the Banks Peninsula . He sailed south and found what he was looking for in Port Cooper ( Lyttelton ) and further inland. Back in London , he reported to the Canterbury Association, which then began promoting and organizing the settlement project. Wakefield, who did not want to travel to New Zealand himself, persuaded Godley to take over the management of the project.

Godley sailed for New Zealand in November 1849 to prepare for the arrival of the settlers. Then on January 3, 1850, the Canterbury Association approved the purchase of 2.5 million acres . Afterwards, the recruitment of settlers began and the first four ships were prepared for the crossing, the Randolph , the Cressy , the Sir George Seymour and the Charlotte Jane . After a farewell banquet that took place on July 30, 1850 with royal participation, the four ships left their home country via Plymouth in September 1850 .

On December 16, 1850, the first ship, the Charlotte Jane, reached the port of Port Cooper under the leadership of the colonialist and later politician James FitzGerald . In total, around 800 settlers reached the new land, which they called Canterbury from then on, with the first four ships . Godley returned to England in December 1852 and FitzGerald became the provincial political leader in 1853 as superintendent for Canterbury. In 1853 the Canterbury Association ran into financial difficulties and was eventually dissolved.

literature

  • The Canterbury Association. In: New Zealand Government Railways Department (Ed.): The New Zealand Railways Magazine . Volume 13, Issue 1. Wellington April 1, 1938, pp. 31.40 (English, online ).
  • Michael Blain: The Canterbury Association (1848-1852): A Study of Its Members' Connections . 2007 (English, online ( memento from September 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) PDF 661 kB [accessed on February 22, 2016]).

Web links

Commons : Canterbury Association  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Canterbury Association. In: The New Zealand Railways Magazine . 1938, p.  31 (English).
  2. ^ Blain: The Canterbury Association (1848-1852): A Study of Its Members' Connections . 2007, p. 1 (English).
  3. ↑ Canterbury Association: incorporated by Royal Charter November 13th, 1849. National Library of New Zealand , accessed February 11, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Brad Patterson: Thomas, Joseph . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume 1. Allen & Unwin, Wellington 1990 (English, online ).
  5. ^ A b John Robert Godley and the founding of Canterbury. Christchurch City Library, accessed February 11, 2015 .
  6. ^ The Canterbury Association and their land purchasers . In: Wellington Independent . Volume VIII, Issue 835. Wellington October 12, 1853, p.  3 (English, online ).

  • Members of the Canterbury Association who actively supported the settlement project (memorial stone in ChristChurch Cathedral ).

  • List of toasts for the farewell banquet on July 30, 1850