British Government for some protection and repressive aid; and it was high time, as the annals of the period show, though on rare occasions constituted lawlessness could be enlisted in upholding constituted authority, yet, even then, at the expense of the extinction of every sentiment of pity or mercy. Thus, a Sydney vessel, having eighty convicts on board, anchored in the Bay of Islands, when it transpired that the outlaws had overpowered their guard, and, seizing the craft, managed to navigate her to New Zealand. On their arrival, an old trader named Duke, with the assistance of a number of Maoris whom he had enlisted in his service, immediately boarded the vessel, fought and conquered the felon barrators, and took them back to Sydney. where nine were duly hanged for their offence. A type of the class of ruffians, the most infamous of all, who frequented New Zealand waters at this period was a trader named Stewart. This fiend in human shape formed a most bloodthirsty compact with a Maori chief named Te Rauparaha, famed alike for craft and cruelty. The chief's father had been slain in an incidental fray by the Maoris of Kaiapoi in the South Island, and Te Rauparaha burned to avenge his death. When Stewart arrived in the "Elizabeth," Te Rauparaha hired the vessel to take him, on payment of 30 tons of flax, to Akaroa, which was inhabited by natives of the same tribe as those who had slain his father. The local chief and his friends visited the vessel on Stewart's assurance that he had no hostile Maoris on board, Te Rauparaha and his men concealing themselves in the hold. Then a scene of frightful carnage ensued. The chief and his "rangatiras" were seized, the men warriors and common people butchered, while the remainder were reserved for a worse fate. Te Rauparaha and his followers, flushed with success, landed and fired the village, murdering all they could lay hands upon. Some of the bodies were taken on board and, with Stewart's acquiescence, cooked in the brig's coppers. On returning to Cook's Straits, Te Rauparaha and his men landed, but Stewart retained the captive chief on board the "Elizabeth" until the 30 tons of flax were furnished. When this was received he handed over the chief and his wife, who were tortured to death. Stewart was afterwards arrested in Sydney and thrown into prison, but in spite of Governor Darling's efforts, the prosecution failed through lack of evidence.

It was to put down such ruffians as Stewart and his fellows that the missionaries used their influence with the Maori chiefs to induce them to apply to King William the Fourth for British protection; though it must not be thought that all New Zealand was one Kororareka, for the mission extended its influence, not only along the coasts, but in many districts of the interior, bringing a large minority of the natives into an outward adoption of Christianity.

Acting on the appeal of the "Confederated Chiefs of North Island," representations were forwarded to the Imperial authorities from the Governor of New South Wales, suggesting the appointment of a British Resident, and, in 1832, Lord Ripon despatched Mr. James Busby, a

civil engineer of New South Wales, who was then on a visit to England, to fill that position. H.M.S. "Imogene" was employed to carry him to his Residency, where he arrived on the 5th May, 1833, and stationed himself at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, a short distance from the Piahia Mission Station, under the official ægis of Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales. Busby was paid a salary, and provided with £200 a year to distribute in presents to the native chiefs; but he had no real authority, and was not backed by any force. Instead of seeking to extend the dominion of the British Empire, as might be expected from a British Consul, Busby drew up a federal constitution for the Maori tribes, ambitiously designated "The Confederacy of the Thirteen Northern Chiefs," and asked the Colonial Office to abandon all British claims to New Zealand, and to recognise such "confederacy" as the sovereign power of the State; and, stranger still, the proposal was agreed to in London. In 1835 Mr. Busby sug gested that the New Zealanders should have a national flag, enabling vessels built in the colony to possess freedom of trade in British ports; and the proposal being also approved, Captain Lambert, in H.M.S. "Alligator," was sent to the Bay of Islands with three patterns of flags for the chiefs to select from. The flag was chosen accordingly, and saluted as the standard of an independent country. Mr. Busby managed to get the chiefs to accept his constitution, and his national flag was ceremoniously run up; but the hoisting of this piece of bunting formed the first and last act in the federation of Maori tribes under

parliamentary institutions. From the Bay of Islands H.M.S. "Alligator" proceeded to the west coast of the North Island to punish the Ngatiruani tribe, who had behaved with inhumanity to the crew of the barque "Harriett," in April, 1834, and who held captive Mrs. Guard, the wife of the Captain, with her children. On board the "Alligator" was a company of the 50th regiment. Mrs. Guard and her children were released; two villages, crowded with a mixed assemblage of men, women, and children, were cannonaded; the habitations in two "pas" and their accumulated store of provisions were burned, and the head of the principal chief, who had been slain, was cut off and kicked by the triumphant soldiers and marines as a football along the beach. Thus did the enlightened white emulate the brutalities of the uncivilised barbarian. In the year 1837 Governor Bourke recalled Busby, on the ground that his appointment to the consulship at Kororareka had not answered the expectations that had been formed

In 1837 Captain Hobson was in Sydney in command of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake." A serious war was then raging among the native tribes at the Bay of Islands, and Sir Richard Bourke thought it his duty to request Captain Hobson to proceed thither and protect British interests, and to report on the condition of the country. In the report, which attracted considerable attention, Captain Hobson proposed that factories should be established after the manner of the early trading

companies of the English and the Dutch. When making the recommendation he was probably not aware that the Sydney merchants had, in 1815, made a similar proposal to Governor Macquarie. He also recommended that a treaty should be made with the New Zealand chiefs for the recognition of the factories and for the protection of British subjects and property.

It was also in the year 1837 that the New Zealand Association was formed, Mr. Francis Baring being the chairman. Several of those gentlemen who were in the venture of 1825 to Hokianga, were on the Committee, as well as some of those who were active in colonising South Australia. At their head were John Lambton, Earl of Durham, and Edward Gibbon Wakefield. One of the most prominent members was Sir William Molesworth. The movement towards systematised colonisation had a certain disturbing effect upon the Colonial Office. The fact of the matter was, that the Colonial Office had been foolishly committed to the acknowledgment of the "Confederacy of the Thirteen Chiefs," and did not know precisely how to recover the lost ground. Lord Glenelg was willing to grant the Association a charter of colonisation under certain conditions, provided the consent of the chiefs could be obtained. One of these conditions was objected to by the promoters. Lord Glenelg insisted that a certain amount of capital should be subscribed, and a fixed proportion paid before the Association should assume any authority. Lord Durham said the Association would "neither run any pecuniary risk nor reap any pecuniary advantage," and so the negotiations came to an end. In June, 1838, Mr.

Francis Baring obtained leave to bring in a Bill for founding a British Colony in New Zealand, and though the first reading was carried by seventy-four votes to twenty-three, it was thrown out on the second reading by a majority of sixty.

In the meantime the islands were being overrun by speculative "land-sharks,"-clever adventurers who, well surmising an impending change in the condition of affairs in New Zealand, hastened to secure some claim, in many cases vague and shadowy enough, to huge estates all over the country. It is alleged that most of the so-called purchases of native lands were altogether fictitious, or else were imperfect and made for absurdly low prices. By the year 1840 it was estimated that some 20,000,000 acres, or nearly a third of the islands, were supposed to have been "acquired" by the "land sharks." The claims arising out of these dubious transactions brought in due course plentiful crop of confusion, bitterness, and heart-burning. There was at the time no legally constituted authority to deal with such cases, and armed conflict between the Maori warrior chiefs and the sharpers scheming to possess the estates of the tribes was rapidly becoming imminent. Annexation by Great Britain was the only solution of the difficulty; and it is to the credit of Marsden and his assistant, the Rev. Henry Williams, that they had both come to see this clearly. Moreover, there were rumours of no very pleasant character that the French had

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designs upon the islands. The missionaries were now on the horns of a dilemma. They had done their utmost to set up a native nation, independent of Great Britain. With a few exceptions they dreaded annexation; but they dreaded annexation by the French most of all.

The burlesque attempt, of the quaint adventurer De Thierry tc create a kingdom of his own in the North Island was also a factor in precipitating events. This amusing gentleman had endeavoured to enlist the sympathies of his countrymen and his Government, though apparently with small success. His efforts in this direction, however, served to attract French attention to New Zealand as a desirable possession; so when another knight of fortune, also French, by name Langlois, the captain of a whaling ship, appealed to his countrymen to aid him in exploiting the islands, there was a respectable measure of response. Langlois professed to have bought 300,000 acres of land from the natives of the Banks Peninsula, in the South Island. Owing in part to the exertions of this adventurer, a French syndicate, called “The Nantes-Bordelaise Company," was formed to found a French settlement on the shores of the beautiful inlet of Akaroa Harbour, on the island which Langlois declared he had purchased; and in this colonising association one of the shareholders was Louis Philippe. The formation of the French company, as well as the antics of Baron De Thierry, caused no little uneasiness, and all sorts of vague surmises, as to the nature of the intentions of France.

Some time in the year 1838, a public meeting had been held at Kororareka to consider the best means of preserving life and property in the district, and the Kororareka Association was formed for this. purpose. When the news of the proceedings at the township capital of the Bay of Islands reached Great Britain, the Colonial Office awoke to the seriousness of the situation, and saw that further delay might prove fatal to British interests in the islands, and the annexation of New Zealand to the Empire was determined upon. Still the proceedings were of the tardiest. In December, 1838, it was proposed that a British Consul should be appointed to reside in New Zealand, and Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, was officially informed of the intention; but it was not until the middle of the next year that the selection of a consular agent was made, and it was determined that "certain parts of the islands of New Zealand should be added to the Colony of New South Wales as a dependency of that Government, and that Captain Hobson, R.N., should proceed thither as British Consul to fill the office of Lieutenant Governor." In June and July the arrangements were gazetted; in August Lord Normanby gave the Consul his instructions; and that official at once prepared to proceed with his family in H.M.S. "Druid" to Port Jackson, where he arrived on the Christmas Eve of 1839.

Captain Hobson's instructions were to establish a form of civil government with the consent of the natives; to treat for the recognition of Her Majesty's authority over the whole or any portion of the

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islands; to induce the chiefs to contract that no lands should in future be sold except to the Crown; to announce by proclamation that no titles to lands acquired from the natives or the dependency would be recognised except such as were confirmed by a Crown grant; to arrange for the appointment of a commission to determine what lands held by British subjects had been lawfully acquired; and to appoint a protector to supervise the interests of the Maori population. Captain Hobson was armed with a dormant commission, authorising him, after annexing New Zealand, to govern it in the name of the Queen. In Sydney a Royal Proclamation was issued, under which New Zealand was included within the political boundary of the Colony of New South Wales. Captain Hobson was to act as Lieutenant-Governor, with the Governor of New South Wales as his superior officer. In H.M.S. "Herald" he left Sydney for the Bay of Islands where he arrived on January 29th, 1840," and was loyally received by the Alsatians." The history of New Zealand, as a portion of the British Empire, dates from that day.

Captain Hobson was accompanied by a Treasurer, a Collector of Customs, a Police Magistrate, two clerks, a sergeant, and four men of the mounted police of New South Wales. As soon as the "Herald left Port Jackson Sir George Gipps issued three proclamations, the first, already referred to, extending his government to any territory which had been or might be acquired in sovereignty by Her Majesty within the group of islands in the Pacific Ocean commonly called New Zealand; the second, appointing Captain Hobson Lieutenant Governor of any territory that might be acquired by Her Majesty ; and the third declaring that Her Majesty would not acknowledge as valid any title to land which either had been or should be thereafter acquired in that country, which was not either derived from or confirmed by a grant made in Her Majesty's name or on her behalf. To the land claimants of Sydney the latter proclamation was especially obnoxious, as the traders there had bought large tracts for speculative purposes. In this connection commissioners were subsequently appointed to revise claims put forward by some individuals to large tracts of land purchased in the islands. A Bill was introduced into the New South Wales Parliament during the session of 1840 for the purpose, when Mr. W. C. Wentworth and Mr. James Busby, late Consul at the Bay of Islands, and some others who had purchased land from several New Zealand chiefs, resisted the inquiry. These persons had purchased land to the amount of 10,000,000 acres in the South Island, and 200,000 acres in the North Island, for which they had paid a small sum in cash, and agreed to the further payment of £100 per annum for life to each of the chiefs that had ceded his territory. The claimants were heard at the Bar of the Legislative Council, both personally and by counsel, in defence of their claims, and in opposition to the Bill. Messrs. Wentworth and Busby were heard personally, the others through their counsel, Mr. W. a'Beckett (afterwards Chief Justice