Wakefield and the Governor’s Arrival
At length the unknown vessel approached the inner harbour [of the first NZ Company settlement at Port Nicholson, modern-day Wellington] and the red ensign was made out at the peak, and the Union Jack at the mainmasthead. It became evident that she must be the Government brig! She anchored off the hotel; Union Jacks were hoisted at Colonel Wakefield's house, and at the straw hut in the Pipitea pa which served as a policeoffice and governmenthouse. The natives who heard of it laughed at the report. They said the ship was not half so big as the ship in which 'Wideawake's' [Wakefield’s] tutua (common) white people came, and it could not be the Kawana (Governor). They pointed to the diminutive size and slovenly appearance of the craft; which certainly did look small among the two large emigrant barques, an American whaler, and two or three fine brigs and schooners, lying near her…. They were sure we were telling them tito, 'lies'; or pangareka, 'making fun of them'. We had said so often that the Governor was coming; they would wait till they saw the Great Chief themselves.
The settlers at each other's homes, at the hotels, or at the workshops, according to their respective classes, quietly commented on the arrival of Captain Hobson. But little gladness arose from the discussion, as they were convinced that they had an enemy to meet, instead of a kind guardian to greet with welcome. An admirable feeling of respect for their own dignity induced all to scout [consider] the idea of hissing the Governor on his landing, or making any other active demonstration of dislike; but it was sorrowfully whispered how passionate a welcome from the true hearts of some thousand Englishmen would have echoed along the hills, had they been about to receive a ruler who had deserved common respect or gratitude….
(Edited from Wakefield, E.J. Adventure in New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, f.p. 1845, abridged reprint 1955, p.200)
Wakefield and the Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi
While I was waiting for the return of Kuru and the gathering of the clans, Messrs. Williams and Hadfield [missionaries] arrived by land. They held no communication with me; but I heard from the natives, and also from MacGregor, the skipper, who called upon them in their tent, what had been their proceedings. Turoa and Te Aratia, with several other of the chiefs who had held communication with them, told me that Mr. Williams had asked them to sign a paper and promised them a present of a blanket from the Queen. They had answered at first by requesting him to show the paper to the other white people then on the spot, in order that the transaction should be a public one; which he had refused to do. He then asked them who the white people in the ship were; and upon their informing him [that it was Wakefield and his land buying party], he had urged them not to sell their land, saying that 'all the goods in the vessel were light, and might be lifted with the hand, but that the oneone, or "land", could not.' They took care to assure me, however, that this bangareka or 'joke' of Williams, as they termed it, had not shaken their resolution of abiding by their bargain [of selling the agreed piece of land].
In the evening of the day after Mr. Williams's arrival, they came on board, and told me that Turoa and Te Aratia had received a blanket each on signing, and that Williams had departed to the southward. I could not ascertain whether any other chiefs had signed or not. I gathered from MacGregor that the paper was one ceding sovereignty to the Queen, similar to that to which the adhesion [agreement] of the Port Nicholson chiefs had been obtained; and was rather surprised that Mr. Williams had not taken pains to acquire the assent of more of the chiefs, or of any of those towards Patea and the country to the north.
On inquiring of Turoa whether he understood what he had signed, he repeated to me, that my Queen had sent him a blanket, and that he had been told to make a mark in order to show that he had got it. When I explained to him that my Queen had become his also, and that she and her Governor were now chiefs over him as well as over me, he became very agitated, and repeatedly spoke of following Williams in order to return the blanket and upbraid him for the deception. He finally determined, however, that he must have got to Wanganui by that time, and that he could not catch him. 'But,' said he, 'a blanket is no payment for my name. I am still a chief'
(Edited from Wakefield, E.J. Adventure in New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, f.p. 1845, abridged reprint 1955, pp.117-118)
Wakefield comments on the methods by which signatures are gained for the Treaty
Fully to understand the value of this contract, the circumstance under which it was procured must be kept in view. Captain Hobson's commission [stating that he had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, directly responsible to the Governor of New South Wales] was read at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, on the 30th January, the day of his arrival. On the 5th of February, he presented the Treaty to an assembly of the natives of the Bay of Islands; and on the 6th it was signed by 46 chiefs. On the 12th he met the natives of the Hokianga; and 56 more chiefs signed the treaty. In March, Mr. Shortland, Captain Symonds, and four missionaries were appointed to secure the adherence of the chiefs of the northern islands to the treaty. One of the missionaries deputed his colleague, Mr. Chapman and the master of a coasting trader, named Fedarb, to obtain signatures. Copies of the Treaty were thus dispersed about the Northern Island. Some of the chiefs refused to sign it; but at last, between the 6th of February and the 3rd of September, 512 signatures were obtained. Of these signatures, upwards of 200 were those of the chiefs inhabiting the peninsula north of the harbour of Manukau and the estuary of the Thames; leaving only 300 to represent the inhabitants of more than threefourths of the North Island. There is no evidence whatever that the assent of the powerful and warlike tribes of the interior, in the upper valleys of the Waipa and Waikato, around Lake Taupo and the Rotorua lakes was ever asked; certainly it was never obtained. The greater part of the signatures was obtained at flying visits, and after one or at the most two interviews. Presents of blankets and tobacco were made to the chiefs who signed; and there cannot exist a doubt that to obtain these presents was with many the motive for signing.
Having not even the name of Governor or Government in their language, it may be supposed that the natives had no very precise or definite ideas of government; a thing unknown in fact to their institutions. Having no collective name for their own country, it may be supposed that they had no distinct idea of different countries, of national distinctions, and therefore none of foreign relations. There is no evidence that adequate means were taken to explain those large and novel ideas to them, so necessary to the proper understanding, not only of any treaty, but even of what a treaty is. Captain Symonds had been only a few months in New Zealand, knew but little of the language, and had not the benefit of the assistance as interpreter of the missionary at Manukau, who was absent; and it may be doubted whether Mr. Fedarb, the master of the tradingvessel (who from his name appears not to have been an Englishman), was capable of understanding the treaty, much less of explaining it to the natives. It was obvious, from these considerations, that the framers of the Treaty purposed to bind the natives to conditions which there were not even the words to convey. And, on the other hand, they accepted of signatures from those who could not know to what they were putting their hands, and professed to the white settlers to have procured a valid adhesion to the compact [signing of the Treaty].* The Treaty of Waitangi has been truly described by the [British] House of Commons' Committee of last year as 'little more than a legal fiction'.
(Edited from Wakefield, E.J. Adventure in New Zealand, Whitcombe and Tombs, f.p. 1845, abridged reprint 1955, pp. 301-302)
*Editor’s note: Similar objections apply of course to Wakefield's own [land-buying] transactions with the Maori chiefs.