Captain william hobson biography of michael

Shortland and some soldiers were sent to Port Nicholson on 25 May; the Council was disbanded and the offending flags struck. The settlers' leader, William Wakefield, later went to the Bay of Islands with an address pledging their allegiance to the Crown and suggesting that Hobson make Port Nicholson the capital. This was declined, but Hobson was reassured by their gesture.

Another crisis faced Hobson when the French frigate L'Aube arrived on 11 July, en route for Banks Peninsula, where the Nanto-Bordelaise Company expedition was about to found a settlement. The ship's captain, C. Lavaud, met Hobson and courteously refused to acknowledge his status until he should hear from the French government. Hobson hastily dispatched two magistrates to Akaroa to hold courts as a sign of 'effective occupation' by British subjects.

On 18 September the British flag was raised on the shore of the Waitemata Harbour, land was bought and preparations made for establishing the capital there. The town was named after Hobson's patron, Lord Auckland. In October the first 40 immigrants arrived, from Australia. The official move came in Februarywhen the government officials, their families, and official records travelled from Kororareka in the brig Victoria.

Compared with Port Nicholson, Auckland was sparsely populated, labour was in short supply, and food had to be imported from the north or from Sydney; prices, wages and rents were high. Further strife with the New Zealand Company occurred late in when it offered for sale blocks of land at Wanganui and Taranaki. The Port Nicholson settlers sent a petition to the Queen complaining about Hobson's treatment of them and requesting his dismissal.

Hobson dealt with their criticism in a dispatch of 26 May to the secretary of state. New Zealand became a Crown colony separate from New South Wales when Hobson took the oath as governor and commander in chief on 3 May ; a royal charter had been signed by Queen Victoria the previous November. As governor, Hobson now dealt directly with the home government, but the answers to his dispatches took at least nine months to reach him.

He was further handicapped by the inferior advice of his Executive and Legislative councils. Shortland, the colonial secretary, was brusque, tactless and incompetent. George Cooper, the colonial treasurer, was even more unsatisfactory. Francis Fisher, the attorney general, was competent but suffered ill health and soon retired. Shortland and the venal Felton Mathew, the acting surveyor general, engaged in questionable appropriation of land in Auckland before the first town land sales.

In August Hobson was at last able to visit Wellington, travelling on the Victoria ; he stayed at a waterfront hotel, received settlers and heard their complaints, and selected magistrates. The people of Wellington were reassured about their title to land. Provisions were made for court hearings, and customs duties were removed. Relations with Wellington were improved by this visit, but the company's founding of Nelson was to cause further discord.

Hobson sailed to Akaroa, where settlement of French captains william hobson biography of michael was still awaited. After returning to Auckland, Hobson was joined by more able staff: William Swainson, attorney general from Octoberand William Martin, judge of the Supreme Court from January After the murders of a European family, their servant and a Maori child in the Bay of Islands in Novembera Maori uprising was feared.

However, the Supreme Court trial and subsequent execution of Maketu occurred without conflict, and was taken to emphasise the rule of law over both races. An outbreak of intertribal warfare and cannibalism at Thames was another challenge to Hobson's authority: the offending chief, Taraia, wrote to him, saying the fighting was a Maori affair only.

At first Hobson intended to send soldiers, but finally his officials with the assistance of missionaries calmed the situation and admonished the participants. Throughout his administration Hobson had insufficient troops to deal with major conflict, and could only resort to moral suasion. The notion that the original Auckland land was gifted stems from an embassy of Ngati Whatua chiefs from Orakei on the Waitemata Harbour arriving at the Bay of Islands in February shortly after the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed.

These chiefs already had their sights on Hobson setting up his capital in their tribal territory in order to gain British protection from the fearsome Northern Ngapuhi tribe, which had come down under ravenously cruel warlord Hongi Hika and killed and cannibalized their tribe almost to the point of extinction during the early phase of the Musket Wars in the s.

In exchange for Hobson living among them, the Ngati Whatua were willing to gift land for his colony. In any event, as described, Hobson did move his capital down south from Russell and onto Ngati Whatua tribal territory in order to establish Auckland, but he arranged for the land to be bought fair and square and for the title to be indefeasibly transferred on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, and the Maoris of the time he dealt with knew that.

Yet today, at several points of commemoration around inner Auckland city where the land transfer is mentioned Hobson is usually omittedincluding those funded by Auckland Council or its related entities, we find statements that Ngati Whatua Maoris gifted the land for Auckland to be built on, and even that Hobson and the British colonists were under their tribal protection.

It is regrettable that these palpable falsehoods are perpetrated in this dishonest way, and worse, at ratepayer expense. These lands have contributed to the development of New Zealand and Auckland in particular. The Crown also acknowledges that Ngati Whatua sought to strengthen the relationship by expressing loyalty to the Crown. It could mean simply the legal notion of title transfer, or it could encompass gifting, or sale and purchase.

The use of gifting to describe the original land transaction for Auckland should be struck out of public commemorative signage and plaques and replaced with truthful references to selling. September this year will mark years since Hobson, the founder of Auckland and father of modern New Zealand, died in the city he created. At least up until his death anniversary was officially commemorated but the practice seems to have fallen into abeyance.

Auckland City Early Heritage Group seeks to revive the tradition of showing respect to the Governor by convening at his grave site and undertaking a guided walk through the surrounding cemetery. The free upcoming informal event will take place on the morning of Saturday, 14 September Henry, afterwards Yelverton, and P. Shortland Shortly afterwards Lord Auckland was appointed Governor-general of India.

In the Rattlesnake was detached to visit Australia. He assisted to establish the new colony at Port Phillip, where the Rattlesnake lay for three months while her officers surveyed the harbour and helped to lay out the town of Melbourne. Bourke directed that the northern arm of the bay should bear Hobson's name. About this time Hobson was mentioned for the post of superintendent of the Bombay Marine, but he was already contemplating settling in one of the colonies, the climate of which was a great attraction.

The precarious situation of British settlers in New Zealand owing to the outbreak of a tribal war at Bay of Islands induced Bourke to despatch the Rattlesnake thither. Hobson made a careful study of conditions in the country and, with the advice of Marsden who was visiting New Zealand at the time and Henry Williams, he made many contacts with captain william hobson biography of michael chiefs, missionaries and the British Resident James Busby.

On his return to New South Wales he made an interesting report outlining a scheme for the government of the country through a system of factories similar to those existing in India at that time. Despatches were now received ordering the Rattlesnake to rejoin the flag at Trincomalee in view of projected operations against Burma in which, as senior officer, Hobson would take command.

Counsels of peace prevailed, however, and the Rattlesnake proceeded to England and paid off. Again unemployed, Hobson spent some months with his family in Plymouth. The New Zealand question was becoming more insistent, and Lord Glenelg, when he retired from the post of Secretary for the Colonies in Febexpressed the opinion that steps must be taken to place British authority there on a definite basis.

His successor Lord Normanby was impelled to act by reports of French activities and by the preparations made by the New Zealand Company to establish a colony in New Zealand. He considered the reports of Hobson and Busby on the proposed form of government, and decided to send an officer, in the capacity of consul, who might treat with the chiefs for the cession of sovereignty over portion or all of the country, and then become lieutenant-governor therein, subject to the jurisdiction of the governor of New South Wales.

Hobson was chosen for the post 1 Jul On 14 Aug he received from the Secretary of State carefully drawn instructions, which laid emphasis upon the desire of the British Government to deal honestly with the natives and to safeguard their future interests against the encroachments of white settlement. He was not to be provided with a military force, nor even with the power to raise a militia of the white population.

On 25 Aug four months after the departure of the Company's ship Tory Hobson sailed with his wife and family, in H. In his party was Willoughby Shortland q. Arriving in Port Jackson on 24 Dec, Hobson spent several weeks consulting with the Governor Sir George Gipps as to the machinery of government he should erect in New Zealand, the relations of New Zealand to New South Wales, the officials who should be taken to inaugurate the administration, and proclamations which were considered necessary to stop land speculation in the prospective colony.

He sailed for New Zealand as a passenger in H. On the following day, in the mission church at Kororareka, he read his commission, extending the limits of the colony of New South Wales, and appointing him Lieutenant-governor over such part of New Zealand as might be ceded in sovereignty to the Queen. A memorial of the act was drawn up and signed by 40 European witnesses.

Hobson then read proclamations announcing his assumption of office and warning claimants to land that only such claims as were derived from, or confirmed by, a grant from the crown would be held valid.

Captain william hobson biography of michael

Invitations were sent out for a meeting of chiefs to be held at Waitangi on 5 Feb to discuss the proposed cession of sovereignty. In all these proceedings Hobson was cordially assisted by the missionaries and the Resident. At the meeting on 5 Feb, and at subsequent meetings both at Waitangi and at other places in the north of Auckland, the chiefs signed the instrument ceding sovereignty to the Queen, and copies were thereafter taken elsewhere to receive the signatures of more distant chiefs.

Lloyd's List. Retrieved 23 September Lewes, Sussex: Book Guild. ISBN Retrieved 23 April Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 12 December AUT Media. The Life of Henry Williams. An Illustrated History of the Treaty of Waitangi. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. National Archives of New Zealand. Te Papa. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, — 4th ed.

Wellington: V. Ward, Govt. OCLC Archived from the original on 14 February Retrieved 25 April New Zealand Gazetter. Auckland Then and Now. United Kingdom: Pavilion Books. Wikidata Q Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. William Hobson at Wikipedia's sister projects.