New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company was a company founded in London in 1825 , which was finally re-established in 1839 after its dissolution in 1826 and the establishment of various other companies with similar purposes. The aim of the society was to promote the colonization of New Zealand and to sell the land developed there to settlers and speculators . The settlements of Wellington (1840), Wanganui (1840), New Plymouth (1841) and Nelson (1842) were founded by the New Zealand Company , and Dunedin (1848) and Christchurch (1850) by their subsidiaries Otago Association and Canterbury Association .
Historical background
Great Britain and Ireland
With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the situation of the working population in Great Britain deteriorated noticeably. Labor was replaced by machine power, unemployment spread and wages fell. In addition, the population grew rapidly, from around 16 million in 1801 to around 26 million 40 years later. Large sections of the working class and the common peasants were driven into misery. Those who had a job could hardly make a living from it; those who had no work had to go begging. Frustration and violent clashes increased. Finally, in 1831, workers stormed the factories in southern England and destroyed the machines. In Ireland , hunger spread due to several poor potato harvests . In this climate, many people felt the urge to emigrate and look for a better, more worthwhile life.
New Zealand
After the explorations and cartographies of the British navigator and explorer Captain James Cook in 1769/70, whalers , sealers and later also missionaries gradually came to New Zealand in the following years . Word of the new land on the other end of the world spread quickly in Great Britain. But New Zealand was far away and an uncultivated country with huge forests and tall tree ferns and did not exactly promise to be the "promised land". At first, emigration to New Zealand was rather sparse. Around 1839 there were just about 2,000 immigrants in New Zealand, but by 1852 there were already 28,000.
The decisive point for this remarkable change was the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840. This right to be a British colony, established from the British point of view , encouraged emigrants to try their luck in the new colony.
Company history
1. New Zealand Company
The first New Zealand Company was founded as early as 1825, at a time when colonization was viewed by some influential wealthy as the answer to Britain's troubles, while at the same time promising speculative gains. The company was founded by notable people such as John George Lambton (later Lord Durham ), Colonel Robert Torrens (1780–1864), Russell Ellice (1799–1873), Lord Hatherton , Stewart Marjoribanks (1774–1863) and George Lyall (1779– 1853) with the aim of establishing and operating commercial and agricultural settlements around Hokianga Harbor and around Thames . As a start-up capital 20,000 were English. Pounds together.
An expedition preparing for the settlement in New Zealand in 1826 was canceled after the unwelcome reception by Māori in the Bay of Islands and at Hokianga Harbor . Financing problems finally caused the company's shareholders and sponsors to refrain from further expeditions. The New Zealand Company was dissolved.
New Zealand Association
Inspired by Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theories of colonization, the New Zealand Association was founded in London in 1837 , with Wakefield himself assuming the post of director. As with the founding of the 1st New Zealand Company, there were well-known and influential sponsors ( Francis Baring , Lord Durham , Lord Petre , William Bingham Baring , Rev. S. Hinds, Benjamin Hawes, William Hutt, Sir William Molesworth and Henry George Ward ) among the founders. The members were divided into two classes, those willing to settle and the financiers and sponsors. When the Society's goals were published, the missionaries' lobby made powerful opposition to the project. When the New Zealand Association finally had to report to parliament in June 1838 and received no government support for its project, the society was dissolved on July 9, 1838.
New Zealand Colonization Company
The existence of this society cannot be adequately clarified because of contradicting sources. The New Zealand Colonization Society is also sometimes used . It can be assumed that this company name is to be equated with the 2nd New Zealand Company .
New Zealand Land Company
This society is also treated imprecisely in the sources or the name is used incorrectly. Here, too, it can be assumed that this company name is to be equated with the 2nd New Zealand Company .
2. New Zealand Company
Six weeks later, on August 29, 1838, 14 former members of the first New Zealand Company and the New Zealand Association, under the leadership of Lord Petre, formed the New Zealand Company as a private corporation with 50 shares of £ 500 each. The aim was to promote the colonization of New Zealand without the support of the British government.
With the money raised by the spring of 1839, an expedition was planned for land purchase and preparation for the settlement of New Zealand. With 4,000 shareholders and 400,000 pounds (contradictions regarding company shares, see above), the expedition was supposed to start in May 1839. But the government, which was not yet prepared for a stronger engagement in New Zealand, tried to stop the project and prevent the expedition ship Tory from sailing. At the urging of Edward Gibbon Wakefield , the Tory laid off on May 12, 1839 under the leadership of William Wakefield (the first brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield ) in an idiosyncratic nocturnal action from London .
Arrived in Port Nicholson (now Wellington ) in August 1839 , William Wakefield immediately began buying land. The physician and geologist Ernst Dieffenbach was also on board . Hired by the New Zealand Company , he began a two-year period of research and documentation of large parts of New Zealand's North Island for the company .
On January 22, 1840, the Aurora arrived with the first settlers in Port Nicholson . Wellington settlement was established. The foundings Wanganui (1840), New Plymouth (1841) and Nelson (1842) followed.
The practices of the New Zealand Company were sometimes dubious and led to massive criticism and plenty of conflict. Most of the land promised to the settlers was not available in sufficient quality or quantity. Doubtful land purchases finally led to a military conflict between the Māori and the settlers of the New Zealand Company in Nelson . The armed conflict, in which 22 settlers and numerous Māori as well as Captain Arthur Wakefield (second brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield ) was killed, went down in history as the first New Zealand war . In 1843, the Nelson settlers were short of food and the New Zealand Company was in dire financial straits. Then, with £ 60,000 outstanding, it was practically bankrupt by mid-1845. Only two financial interventions by the UK government saved society from financial collapse.
From then on, the New Zealand Company began to advertise on a large scale and tried to attract many people willing to settle with free crossings. Around 14,000 settlers came to New Zealand in this way between 1840 and 1852. As a result, the European population in New Zealand had already reached around 28,000 by 1852. With miscalculations and mismanagement, also in the two settlement projects Otago ( Dunedin ) and Canterbury (Christchurch ), the end of the New Zealand Company was finally heralded. The New Zealand Company was finally dissolved in 1858 after the British government took possession of all the land and land and failed to provide further financial support .
literature
- Edward Jerningham Wakefield : Adventure in New Zealand, from 1839 to 1844 . Volume I . John Murray , London 1845 (English, online [accessed September 20, 2018]).
- Louis E. Ward : Early Wellington . Whitcombe and Tombs , Auckland 1928, New Zealand Association. Captain Herd's Expedition, 1825 , p. 428 f . (English, online [accessed September 20, 2018]).
- Louis E. Ward : Early Wellington . Whitcombe and Tombs , Auckland 1928, Founders of Wellington , p. 443–449 (English, online [accessed September 20, 2018]).
- Alexander Hare McLintock : New Zealand Company - First New Zealand Company . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 (English, online and 2 other pages [accessed December 18, 2015]).
- Patricia Burns : Fatal Success. A History of the New Zealand Company . Heinemann Reed , Auckland 1989, ISBN 0-7900-0011-3 (English).
- Richard Wolfe : A Society of Gentlemen, The untold Story of the first New Zealand Company . Penguin Books , Auckland 2007, ISBN 978-0-14-302051-6 (English).
Web links
- Angela Hachmeister: From Hamburg to the end of the world. In: Culture / History. NDR.de, December 25, 2012, accessed on November 16, 2016 (report on crossing from December 26, 1842 on board the barque "St. Pauli" and the settlement in Nelson.).
- Jock Phillips: History of immigration - British immigration and the New Zealand Company . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , August 21, 2013, accessed December 18, 2015 .
- New Zealand Company . In: New Zealand History . Ministry for Culture & Heritage,accessed January 26, 2017.
- Helen Taft Manning : Lord Durham and the New Zealand Company . (PDF; 9.4 MB) Bryn Mawr College , accessed on January 26, 2017 (English, digitized article).
- Sanderson Beck : Maoris and New Zealand to 1841 . In: South Asia 1800–1950 . Sanderson Beck , accessed January 26, 2017 .
- Robbie Whitmore : The colonization of New Zealand . In: New Zealand in history . Robbie Whitmore , accessed January 26, 2017 (English, private website).