The New Zealand Company’s Tory arrives
- When
- 20 September 1839
- Where
- Port Nicholson · Te Whanganui-a-Tara
- Reach
- Several regions
Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s company sent a ship to buy land before Britain could annex the country, forcing the Crown’s hand.
Colonel William Wakefield had weeks to acquire as much land as possible ahead of any official intervention, and claimed to have bought perhaps 20 million acres for a quantity of trade goods. The purchases were later found to be largely invalid, but the settlers were already on their way. The Company’s speed is a direct reason the Crown moved when it did: annexation in 1840 was partly an attempt to get in front of private colonisation.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
New Zealand Company settlers land at Port Nicholson
The Aurora arrived at Petone weeks before the Treaty was signed. Flooding soon pushed the settlement across the harbour to Thorndon.
PetoneSettlers outnumber Māori
For the first time the European population passed the Māori population — about 59,000 settlers to 56,000 Māori, on a Māori population that had roughly halved since 1800.
French settlers arrive at Akaroa
Sixty-three French and German settlers landed on Banks Peninsula, days after a British warship had raised the flag to forestall exactly that.
AkaroaAuckland founded as the capital
Hobson moved the seat of government to the Waitematā, on land offered by Ngāti Whātua, who wanted the Crown close as protection and as a trading partner.
Auckland