Contact & the musket era

The southern sealing rush

Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — one of the earliest European industries in New Zealand.

The burning of the Boyd

Between 66 and 70 crew and passengers were killed and the ship burned at Whangaroa, after the flogging of a rangatira’s son aboard. For some years afterwards few ships came to New Zealand.

Samuel Marsden’s first Christian service

Marsden preached at Oihi Bay on Christmas Day 1814 under the protection of Ruatara, beginning the first permanent mission station in New Zealand.

The Musket Wars

Musket-armed war parties reshaped the map of Māori New Zealand. Perhaps 20,000 died and whole districts changed hands before the fighting burned out around 1840.

Hongi Hika travels to England

The Ngāpuhi leader met King George IV in London, then traded most of the gifts he received for muskets on the return journey through Sydney.

Te Rauparaha’s migration to Kapiti

Ngāti Toa left Kāwhia and migrated south, seizing Kapiti Island as a base that controlled Cook Strait and the trade passing through it.

Jacky Guard’s whaling station at Te Awaiti

John Guard said he began whaling in Tory Channel in 1827, one of the first shore stations in an industry that placed small mixed Māori–European settlements around the coast.

Kororāreka, the south’s biggest whaling port

Whaling crews, traders, grog shops and no British law earned the town its reputation as the hell-hole of the Pacific.

The Elizabeth affair

A British captain hid Te Rauparaha’s war party aboard his brig to capture the Ngāi Tahu chief Te Maiharanui — an affair that strengthened calls for an official British presence.

Northern chiefs petition King William IV

Thirteen rangatira asked the King to be a friend and guardian of these islands, worried by runaway sailors and other troublesome Europeans, and by rumours of French designs.

James Busby arrives as British Resident

Britain’s first Resident in New Zealand arrived with a grand title, no troops, little money and no legal authority — remembered as a man-of-war without guns.

The flag of the United Tribes is chosen

About 25 northern rangatira selected a national flag so that New Zealand-built ships could be registered and trade legally.

The Harriet affair

A trading ship wrecked near Cape Egmont and its survivors were attacked. The rescue that followed brought British soldiers into combat in New Zealand for the first time.

He Whakaputanga — Declaration of Independence

He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni

Rangatira of the United Tribes declared New Zealand an independent state, with sovereignty and authority over the land resting with the rangatira.

Invasion of Rēkohu and the Moriori

Te whakaeke i Rēkohu

Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama sailed to the Chathams and took the islands. The Moriori, holding to their covenant of peace, chose not to resist and were nearly destroyed.

Bishop Pompallier founds the Catholic mission

Jean Baptiste Pompallier landed at Hokianga, breaking the Protestant monopoly on missionary work and adding a French presence that unsettled the British.

William Hobson is sent to negotiate a treaty

The Colonial Office instructed Hobson to obtain the free and intelligent consent of Māori to British sovereignty — the brief that produced Te Tiriti six months later.

The New Zealand Company’s Tory reaches Port Nicholson

Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s company sent a ship to acquire as much land as it could before the Crown stopped private purchases.