New Zealand Company

The New Zealand Company, a commercial enterprise formed in Britain, dispatched an expedition to establish its second New Zealand settlement, to be named Nelson, in 1841.

New Zealand Company founder and director, Edward Gibbon Wakefield believed that a successful colony needed to attract a balance of capitalists and labour.  In reality, the thousands of fertile acres required were not available in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Heaphy,C.[1841]:View in the Nelson district Alexander Turnbull Library, C-025-004 [New Zealand Company Collection]Click image to enlarge

The Company had developed principles to avoid the disastrous consequences of European settlement which had been experienced by native peoples in North America and Australia:

• All land was to be purchased from the Māori owners.
• One-tenth of all land purchased for European settlement was to be set aside for the future prosperity of Māori vendors.
• Māori were to continue to own all their habitations, cultivations and special sites.

The land to be set aside for the vendors was to be spread throughout the European lands so that Māori could participate in the new economy and would grow rich as the settlement grew rich. The Treaty of Waitangi, signed by the British Crown and Māori chiefs on 6 February 1840, stated that Māori land could be purchased only when Māori wished to sell, and that only the Crown could buy Māori land. In October of that year, the New Zealand Company was recognised as a government instrument of colonisation with a right to deal in land.

Māori welcomed the material benefits of European settlement, but believed they were only sharing use of the land when they signed land deeds and entered into negotiations about their land with the New Zealand Company. To make matters worse for Māori, neither the New Zealand Company's admirable principles, outlined above, nor the Treaty of Waitangi were honoured by European Governors or Governments.

By 1844, a lack of capital, absentee landlords, limited arable land, poor work opportunities and restive Māori resulted in hardship for the New Zealand Company settlers. Between 1840 and 1852, the New Zealand Company brought 15,000 European settlers of generally good stock and character to New Zealand. Whatever their purpose in coming, their conflict with Māori over land was inevitable - as evidenced in the Wairau Affray. This precipitated the demise of the Company in 1858, which was already struggling with financial and political difficulties. The company and its colonisation plans had never been fully supported by the British Government. Its dissolution in 1858 obliged the British Government to establish full colonial governance of the country.

A timetable of colonisation

March 1826: (First) New Zealand Company ship visits Southern New Zealand.

1830s

1836: Edward Gibbon Wakefield (EGW) tells the British House of Commons about the ‘fittest country in the world for colonisation'.

22 May 1837: EGW chairs the first meeting of the New Zealand Association.

1837: Opposition to the New Zealand Association grew, led by the Colonial Office and missionary societies set up to protect Māori and control settlement

June 1838: The New Zealand Association re-forms as the New Zealand Company.

1 December 1838: Captain William Hobson is appointed as New Zealand Consul to address the ‘New Zealand problem' of unregulated British settlement.

1839: 2000 European settlers are in New Zealand: mainly whalers, tradesmen and seamen.

August 1839: Hobson dispatched to New Zealand to establish a British Colony.

August 1839: William Wakefield arrives in New Zealand on the first Company ship, the Tory.

September 1839: William and 16 Te Whanganui a Tara chiefs sign a land deed for Port Nicholson (Wellington) district.

1840s

Saxton, John Waring (1845) The town and part of the harbour of Nelson in 1842, Alexander Turnbull Library, PUBL-0011-06-2. Click image to enlarge

22 January 1840: The Company's first immigrant ship, the Aurora, arrives in Wellington.

6 February 1840: Treaty of Waitangi. Māori chiefs agree to Crown sovereignty and exclusive rights to sale of land.

October 1840: British Colonial Office recognises the New Zealand Company as a government instrument of colonisation, and grants charter and land title.

12 February 1841: (Second) New Zealand Company formally incorporated.

1840-1842: Company ships arrive in Wellington, Wanganui, New Plymouth and Nelson.

1 February 1842: Nelson's first immigrant ship Fifeshire arrives. Each investor was to receive one town acre, 50 suburban acres and 150 rural acres.

17 June 1843: Arthur Wakefield killed at the Wairau Affray. The Company brought close to insolvency when news reaches England.

1843: Settlers short of food and New Zealand Company virtually bankrupt.

1844: All New Zealand Company work ceases; unemployment was rife.

mid - 1845: New Zealand Company £60,000 in debt.

August 1845: Colonial Office advises that Company settlements will become municipalities with legislative council representation.

Stanford's atlas of New Zealand, (Nelson and Marlborough), Auckland City Library Special Collection, NZ Map Number
Click to enlarge

1846: British Government advances money to cover Company liabilities.

1846: Constitution Act passed by Parliament to establish representative institutions in New Zealand.

1848: Company advertises assisted passages for mechanics, farm labourers and domestic servants.

1850s

mid-1850: New Zealand Company collapses after failing to repay a three year loan to the Government by end of June.

4 July 1850: New Zealand Company surrenders charters. Crown pays £268,000 for 1,092,000 acres Company land.

1858: New Zealand Company dissolved.

© The Nelson Provincial Museum, 2007

For a full history of the New Zealand Company, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Company

Updated 2022

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