Settlement & migration
9 events between 1830–1858, shown on the map in this colour.
Kororāreka, the busiest port in the Pacific
Whaling crews, traders, grog shops and no law at all earned the town its reputation as the hell-hole of the Pacific.
Kororāreka (Russell)The New Zealand Company’s Tory arrives
Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s company sent a ship to buy land before Britain could annex the country, forcing the Crown’s hand.
Port NicholsonNew 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.
PetoneFrench 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.
AucklandNelson settlement established
The New Zealand Company’s second settlement was founded on a site with far less flat land than it had sold to its buyers.
NelsonOtago settlement founded
Free Church of Scotland settlers arrived at Port Chalmers to build a Presbyterian community, on land bought from Ngāi Tahu for a fraction of its value.
DunedinThe first four ships reach Lyttelton
The Canterbury Association landed Anglican settlers at Lyttelton, who walked over the Port Hills to found Christchurch on the plains.
LytteltonSettlers 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.