Our Early Settlers
![Ship 'London'' 1840. [nla pic-an2253195-v]](lon3.jpg)
"Rising at dawn,we crowded the ships rails, anxious to get a first glimpse of the land which was to be our new home"....."The sea was calm as we sailed into Port Nicholson on that warm sunlit December morning in 1840 and soon shelters and shacks could be seen dotted along the waterfront......... Presently, native canoes came paddling out from the shore - there must have been a score or more coming to greet us.
Our long journey from England was coming to an end."
The NZ Company ship "London" sailed with 200 immigrants aboard from Gravesend, England,
on the 10th August and arrived on the 12th December, 1840, a voyage of 121 days.
on the 10th August and arrived on the 12th December, 1840, a voyage of 121 days.
Pioneering immigrant histories from New Zealand. **Recommended reading.**
A collection of illustrated and interesting historical articles and stories.
Learn about the early pioneering days in New Zealand and the
lives of the traders stationed on the tiny South Pacific Islands
About the Author
New Zealand historian, researcher and author, Anthony G. Flude, began his research in 1970 into the foundation and history of the Henderson District, situated some thirteen miles west of Auckland City. His first book, HENDERSON'S MILL, published in 1977, detailed the story of the Henderson Township and its early settlers, land sales and development from the first timber workers in 1842.
Realising, during this research, that the township was closely attached to the Henderson & Macfarlane's fleet of sailing ships of Auckland, he continued to accumulate historical information. His second history, CIRCULAR SAW LINE, published in 1988, shows the links to the township, the growth of the shipping line and its importance to the fledgling colony and growing township of Auckland in those early days.
Over the last thirty-five years, his research material has led him to many South Pacific Islands, where the missionaries and traders journals recorded the lives of the people and daily incidents. From these and other official sources stored in museums, archives and libraries, he has put together this collection of articles and stories of the whaler's, sealer's and settlers, who emigrated to a new country and built the foundations of present day New Zealand.............
Contents [ Watch for new additions]
** "Point and Click the Title's" **
SELLING FAST-BUY YOUR COPY ON-LINE
In 1844 the Auckland firm Henderson & Macfarlane swapped a ship for some 18,000 acres of land in the Whau in West Auckland. Thomas Maxwell Henderson, the senior partner and a hard-nosed Scotsmen, then proceeded to tear out the tall kauri timber from the Waitakere ranges and mill it at Henderson’s Mill on Henderson Creek. After the mill closed in 1868, many came and left, but some stayed to build a new life and even a town. THAT town became known as HENDERSON. These are their stories.
A genealogist's delight, Henderson’s Mill, expanded in this second edition to 240 pages, is full of the names of the early settlers and their families who came to the tiny town of Henderson in those early times. Its a must-have reference work of both the history and the family names that contributed to the early district out West. It should be on every bookshelf.
Hard Cover: Price: $29.99. Free delivery NZ only. Order copies direct online:RESOURCE BOOKS AUCKLAND
www.resourcebooks.co.nz
Don't miss out on your copy!
Sordid Welcome For Newcomers. The "BERAR" arrives in Auckland with immigrants, September 3rd, 1873..
extracts from the New Zealand Herald
1. EXPLORATION & SETTLEMENT
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
An account of the early Polynesian explorer's that first came to the shores of New Zealand, where they found a temperate land which was empty and isolated, occupied by a large flightless bird, many small birds and coastal mammals but as yet un-peopled.
Evidence of a first Polynesian settlement on the Taranaki coast occurred around AD 750, some time before the arrival of the Maori Fleet under the command of Te Kupe which arrived on the northeast coast, near the Bay of Islands in AD 950.
It would be many years before the arrival off the coast of New Zealand of the first European explorer's such as Abel Tasman, Captain James Cook and the French explorer, Jean du Surville, who were to encounter hostility from the Maori living here.
2. Ruatara - a Maori chief of New Zealand
by Anthony G. Flude ©2004
An account of the short life and adventures of the Maori chief Ruatara, one of the sons of Te Pahi, an important chief of the Bay of Islands in the early 1800's. There was considerable suspicion of white European visitors and ships to their shores by the native maori people of New Zealand.
Gradually as more ships called into the northern bays, the maori became anxious to expand their knowledge of the outside world. Ruatara had a lust to travel and formed an association and friendship with the well known missionary, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, which led to the first Christmas Service ever held on New Zealand soil in the year 1814.
3. MAORI and MISSIONARIES
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
An account of the first London Church Missionaries, headed by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, who undertook to settle permanently in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in the year 1814 and convert the Maori people to Christianity.
New Zealand was not considered a safe place to visit in those early times, particularly after the Boyd massacre which had taken place in 1809, but the friendship that had developed between Marsden and the Maori Chief Ruatara, helped their cause.
4. UNEMPLOYED, STARVING & HOMELESS
by Anthony G. Flude ©2004
The plight of the working class in England, Ireland and Scotland during the mid 1800's is told in this short article, which relates how over population came about due to the industrial revolution. The introduction of steam and electricity brought mechanisation to the factories which had been labour intensive, leaving many of the semi-skilled unemployed and homeless, forcing many to consider emigration for a better life.
After the first groups emigrated in the 1820's to the USA and Canada, conditions did not improve. The public demonstrated to attract government attention, the crime rate soared. A solution came when New Zealand opened up as a new colony in 1839 and British sovereignty was declared in 1840.
5. LAND SHARKS & SPECULATORS
by Anthony G. Flude ©2003
Shortly before the signing of the 'Treaty of Waitangi' by the Maori chiefs and Governor Hobson R.N. in February, 1840, there were approximately some two thousand white European settlers living in New Zealand.
Gradually, over the years since 1830, when the missionaries and first early settlers had arrived, land, sometimes large areas not settled by the Maori who had no idea of its worth, had been bartered and sold in exchange for guns, blankets and goods. These deeds of sale, made with the local maori chiefs, were soon to become the subject of investigation by the newly appointed Land Claims Commissioners.
Colonel Wakefield, of the New Zealand Company, was to 'buy' thousands of acres of disputed land at Petone and Port Nicholson [Wellington] as the first shiploads of immigrants arrived and New Zealand became a British Colony under Queen Victoria.
6. THE NEW ZEALAND COMPANY - a short History.
Author & origional scource unknown
The New Zealand Company was formed in London, England in 1837 to promote the colonisation of New Zealand and sell land to new settlers and speculators wishing to emigrate to New Zealand in the year 1840.
This is a well written short history of that Company, the propaganda used to promote the sale and purchase of Maori land in New Zealand and the difficulties and problems the Company agents and the new arrivals faced. It was just a short time before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and Governor Hobson declared both islands of New Zealand a British colony.
The New Zealand Company's first three ships arrived at Petone, Wellington, after 3 months at sea, with over 800 emigrant men, women and children aboard, ready and eager to begin their new life.
7. THE FIRST IMMIGRANT SHIPS.
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
An account of early emigrant ships which sailed to New Zealand with settlers from England and Scotland. In the year 1839, the New Zealand Company was formed in London, England, to purchase land from the Maori for the new settlements to be established on the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
The first three ships arrived at Petone, Wellington, after 3 months at sea. Combined, the vessels had over 800 emigrant men, women and children aboard, who found, to their dismay, that there was nothing prepared for them on arrival. Their accomodation was to be a row of small tents and huts, erected away from the beaches, to give them shelter from the wind and weather.
8. THE CIRCULAR SAW SHIPPING LINE
by Anthony G. Flude ©1993
The Circular Saw Line tells the story, in eight, illustrated chapters, of how two of the families aboard the immigrant ship LONDON, the Henderson's and Macfarlane's, made good in the new colony and formed a partnership to develop New Zealand's first commercial sailing ship fleet. Swapping a ship for land, they cut the timber for export to America, Australia and China. While trading in copra, shell and pearls among the South Pacific islands, a saga arose when buried treasure was discovered on remote Suwarrow atoll.
9. THE PIONEER WOMEN OF NEW ZEALAND
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
Many of the women and children of the families arriving as immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland aboard the New Zealand Company ships looked forward with hope to their new lives in the colony of New Zealand. Many had left behind extreme hardships and poverty to seek a new life.
This ON-LINE account gives a brief insight into conditions at the time of their arrival, the hard work and determination needed to succeed, which was willingly given by the wives and womenfolk of the settlers who worked alongside their husbands and children, to build a new and better life.
10. Akaroa & Banks Peninsula- the French connection
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
In December, 1839, aware that the British were negotiating with the Maori to make New Zealand a British Colony, the French King and his government made plans to gain possession of the South Island of New Zealand for France.
Dispatching a group of sixty emigrants from Le Havre in March,1840, they headed for Akaroa and Banks Peninsula to begin a new life. The French scheme failed, for on arrival they found that both the North and South island of New Zealand had become a British colony while they were still on the high seas off the coast of Africa. The French were just a few months too late.
11. JOURNEY TO NEW ZEALAND
compiled by Anthony G. Flude
Thomas Reid of Dunedin came to New Zealand as an immigrant settler from Scotland in the year 1862 aboard the fast clipper ship ROBERT HENDERSON, making the journey, port to port, in 85 days.
During the many long hours of his journey at sea, Thomas set about writing a journal about the day to day happenings and events aboard the ship, which has fortunately survived as a reference.
This is a condensed and edited version of his interesting account of life aboard an immigrant ship in those times on the 12,000 mile journey to the new founded British colony of New Zealand.
12. CONVICTS TO NEW ZEALAND
by Anthony G. Flude ©2003
Despite assurances from the British Government that NO convicts were ever to be sent to the new fledgeling Colony of New Zealand, the unexpected arrival of two ships carrying young convict boys as immigrants from Parkhurst Prison in England in 1842 and 1843, caused quite a stir.
This article outlines the story of their arrival at Auckland, the problems they encountered and the public outcry that stopped them coming for ever.
13. GOLD STRIKE- Prospecting in the 1860's
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
Prospecting for gold in New Zealand, illustrates the gold strikes made on the North and South Islands in the 1860's. Miners and prospectors streamed into New Zealand from Australia and America when the first gold strikes were made. Following the rivers, creeks and streams into wild untamed country, the miners criss-crossed the valleys and gully's in search of the bright gleam of gold.
This story touches on the hardships they endured, the rich strikes that some made and the shanty towns of tents, stores and saloons that they left behind following the gold trails around New Zealand.
14.
WANGANUI AND THE RIVER BOATS by Anthony G. Flude. © 2001.
An account of the early development of the town of Wanganui and the Wanganui River Boats. The land was opened up to the first European immigrants by the London based "New Zealand Company" in the year 1841, when blocks of land were settled and the foundations of the township began.
The wide Wanganui River became the life-line to the settlements, at first serviced by Maori canoes and small schooners which were used to ferry the newly arrived settlers and their goods and stock up the river and the rapids.
In subsequent years, small river steamers took over this task, with larger flat-bottomed paddle steamers, capable of carrying 200 passengers working the river in the 1890's and 1900's as far as the township of Taumarunui, the terminal of the railway south from Auckland.
15. WHALING IN EARLY NEW ZEALAND
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
Whaling was an important industry in the early times, when sealers and whalers came to the coast of New Zealand from many countries to hunt the whales for their oil and bone as they made their migration from the warm Pacific Ocean to the colder waters of the Antarctic each year.
This account of some of the Whaling Stations which were set up on the South Island from the year 1792 onwards, gives a brief insight of the workings and activities of these shore-stations, outlining the vast haul of oil obtained and the huge profits made from its sale overseas.
Commercial Whaling in New Zealand ceased in 1964.
16.
COBB & CO. STAGE-COACHES by Anthony G. Flude. © 2001.
An account of early travel in New Zealand by the horse-drawn passenger stagecoach services called "Cobb & Co." Prior to the year 1860, settlers wishing to travel to another town, rode horseback or hired a horse and carriage to make the journey along the so-called roads and tracks of mud, stones and clay to reach their destination.
Crossing swollen rivers and streams by horse and carriage presented many problems. Where there was no bridge, the coach team had to ford the swiftly flowing water, while the passengers climbed onto the coach roof, each clinging tightly onto the rails as the horses strained to pull the lurching coach towards the opposite bank.
17. THE BOYD MASSACRE
by Anthony G. Flude ©2001
The tragic story of the massacre of the passengers and crew of the brigantine Boyd which occurred nearly two hundred years ago in 1809 in the Bay of Islands, prior to the arrival of the first European settlers in 1840. Many different Maori tribes populated New Zealand in those times, each with its own chiefs, when much of their time was occupied feuding and at war with each other.
Visits from the white European, or Pakeha, were confined to whalers and sailing ships seeking water and provisions or a cargo of kauri timber spars from the forrests along the shores.
This gruesome story, shows how the lack of cultural understanding between different races can easily lead to bloodshed.
18.
HENDERSON'S MILLby Anthony G. Flude. ©1977.
A history of the township of HENDERSON in New Zealand, 13 miles west of Auckland City. Immigrants who arrived aboard the LONDON in 1840, Thomas Henderson and John Macfarlane bought the Henderson land with the proceeds of a cargo of wheat from Adelaide, Australia, that was swapped for a ship load of Kauri timber from Henderson's Mill. The origional timber mill town, founded in 1844, its development and settlers in the district over the years, is well portrayed and told in these seven illustrated chapters.
19.
The Mystery of the MARLBOROUGH & LOSS of the COSPATRICKby Anthony G. Flude. ©1977.
There were many tragedies and losses in the old sailing days when ships sometimes disappeared without trace. Many were struck by violent storms which caused them to founder or be driven onto rocky coasts or be smashed to pieces by Icebergs in the Southern Ocean. The greatest danger was fire.
The tragic loss of the barque 'COSPATRICK' occurred in 1874, when fire broke out, engulfing the entire ship, which burned down to the waterline. She had 460 immigrants aboard bound for Auckland. Just three seamen survived to tell the tale.
20. MUTINY aboard the VENUS
by Anthony G. Flude © 2003
The story of the capture of the Australian brigantine 'VENUS' by a mutinous crew and four convicts who escaped to New Zealand in the year 1806.
Bound for Hobart under escort, the convicts, two men and two women, one with a young child, took command of the vessel in Port Dalrymple, on the north coast of Tasmania and sailed across the Tasman Sea to seek refuge in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand among the Maori people living there.
21.
THE DAYS OF THE SAILING SCOWby Anthony G. Flude. © 2000.
An account of the days of the New Zealand Sailing Scows. These flat bottomed sailing vessels, which were first built in the 1870's, had a large centreboard and sailed the routes along our coastlines and harbours carrying timber and planking, cattle, sheep, horses and pigs. In the early 1900's, during the Auckland building boom, the hard worked scows plied back and forth with cargo's of coal, sand and shingle.
Larger, three masted sea-going scows were built in the 1890's, which greatly expanded the export of timber from Auckland, Northland and Coromandel which was shipped to the shores of Australia and the Pacific Islands.
22.
THE VOYAGE OF THE MERMAID
A TRUE story or a good yarn?
The chance discovery of several ancient leather-bound journals in a Sydney second hand bookshop, revealed a previously unknown voyage said to have been made to New Zealand in 1795, not many years after Captain James Cook's voyages of discovery around the New Zealand coast.
This account, taken from the logbook of the Mermaid, follows the journey and its hardships from London, England, to landfall in New Zealand, over two hundred years ago. Laying up for three months in Port Fitzroy, Great Barrier Island, they received great kindness and hospitality from the local Maori tribes, while the crew carried out badly needed repairs to spars and sails.
23.
OCEAN ISLAND - a rocky land of hidden wealthby Anthony G. Flude. ©2002.
Close to the equator in the Pacific Ocean lies a tiny island which was called Banaba by the natives and Ocean Island by the British. Some 2000 people lived there in 1873, living their peacful lives, fishing, tilling the land to grow their crops and coconuts and at night, dance by the firelight to their pagan songs and music.
They could not possibly have known, that beneath their feet, in the rocky landscape, lay millions of tons of phosphate ore, built up over many years by thousands of migrating birds, just waiting to be discovered and mined.
24.
Captain PETER THEETby Anthony G. Flude. © 1999.
A Profile - Captain Peter THEET was given command of the CIRCULAR SAW LINE fleet of sailing ships owned by Henderson & Macfarlane, in 1879, when the firm concentrated their trade among the South Pacific Islands. He was awarded a gold medal for his rescue of the crew of the Swedish barque Diana, stranded on Starbuck Atoll in 1886.
Captain Theet joined the Pacific Islands Company of Sydney, Australia, in the year 1898 which later mined the large guano fertilizer deposits on Nauru and Ocean Island. When the company became the Pacific Phosphate Company, he was later appointed the Ocean Island Manager.
25.
WILLIAM (GEORGE) ELLIS - Pacific trader.by Anthony G. Flude. ©1999.
A Profile - William (George) Ellis was a well known South Pacific agent and trader during the late 1870's and the 1880's, both in New Zealand and among the people of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. He taught the Penrhyn and Manihiki Islanders the skills of boatbuilding and employed them to harvest copra and shell, fish for beche-de-mer and to dive for pearls in the deeper waters of the lagoons. Much of the business at his island stores was by barter and trade.
26.
Captain WILLIAM HENRY HAYES[Bully Hayes]
American Buccanneer & Pirate.
by Anthony G. Flude ©1999.
Captain 'Bully' HAYES notoriety was well known around the Pacific Ocean, Australia and New Zealand in the period 1850 to1877. These three chapters, relate to his visits to New Zealand and also tell how he began his seafaring life by cheating, stealing and swindling. He traded in ''blackbirding," or native slave labour in the South Pacific in the 1860's. Later, he joined another American pirate named Captain Ben Pease and his cut-throat crew, when a period of pillaging and plundering began among the Northern Pacific Islands.
27.
THE PACIFIC KIDNAPPERS
The Snatch-Snatch Ships
by Anthony G. Flude ©2000.
The Pacific kidnappers or 'blackbirders' began their reign of terror among the tiny Pacific islands in the year 1863, when over 3000 Polynesian natives were taken as slave labour over a ten year period.
This article explains how and where the kidnapping took place, the number of ships known to be involved and how the Polynesian natives, taken from their island homes at gunpoint, died of typhoid and smallpox during the voyage, or while working from dawn to dusk on the sugar, coffee and cotton plantations in Peru, Samoa, Fiji and Queensland. Only a few were to reach their own islands again, alive and able to tell their story.
28.
The Vanishing Swan
A Yacht & its Owner vanish for 30 years.
by Anthony G. Flude ©2003.
The strange story of an Auckland Lawyer who decided to quit his present life style in 1902. Henry Swan bought himself a yacht and some land in Henderson and hid from society for 30 years living a hermit type life in exile alone aboard his yacht 'Awatea" in a tributary off Henderson Creek .
A facinating true story from Henderson's history. He never told anyone why!
29.
THE SEALERS & FUR TRADERSby Anthony G. Flude. ©2005.
An account of the early ships bringing fur sealers and traders to the Southern Ocean in search of the New Zealand fur seal in 1792. They came to slaughter them in their hundreds for their skins which were sold to the traders who supplied the fashion industry and the oil from the blubber used for lamps.
Women's fur seal coats, cloaks, hats, stoles and handbags were in high fashion in England, Europe, America and Asia by the wealthy and from 1792 the New Zealand fur seal helped meet that demand. The slaughter continued until the herds on the South Island and its outer islands were almost extinct by the year 1830.
30.
J.C. Godefroy & Company, Hamburg
Merchants and Shippersby Anthony G. Flude. ©2000.
A profile of this important merchant and shipper operating in the South Pacific during the 1860-1879 period. Their ships and barque's transported German immigrants to Australia aboard the Johann Caesar in 1855 and Caesar Godeffroy in 1862.
Picking up cargo's of kopra and shell from the Pacific Islands on the return passage, this German company set up a large trading base in Western Samoa in 1857 and set about monopolising the kopra and shell trade throughout the region.
Swapping arms and ammunition for land during the civil unrest and tribal wars, the firm hoisted the German colonial flag on their offices and depot in Apia, laying claim to their South Pacific assets.
31.
The Royal New Zealand Fencibles
by Anthony G. Flude. ©2005.
This regiment of pensioner soldiers was formed in England between 1847and 1852 and sent to New Zealand at the request of Governor's Fitzroy and Grey to defend the settlers and their families against attack by the maori. It followed a period of uprisings in the north of New Zealand, where the maori chief Hone Heke and his followers had cut down the flagpole flying the Union Jack flag at Russell in the Bay of Islands and later attacked and defeated the British garrison stationed there in 1845.
32.
The Port Nicholson Purchase
by Anthony G. Flude. ©2006.
Aware that the British government were making plans to colonise New Zealand, the New Zealand Company brig TORY was dispatched in haste from London in 1839 with a cargo of guns and goods, to buy or exchange for land from the Maori tribes before the new immigrant settlers and their families arrived.
Colonel Wakefield, assisted by Dicky Barrett as interpreter, negotiated with the Maori chiefs of Port Nicholson, Te Wharepouri and fifteen other chiefs, to exchange their land for the cargo of goods valued at £365.
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Updated 20th April,2010.
