78 Transactions. 



Art. XIV. — The Mission of the " Britomart" at Akaroa, in August, 



1840. 



By Johannes C. Andersen. 



[Read before the Historical Section of the Wellington Philosophical Society, 20th May, 

 1919 ; received by Editor, 19th June, 1919 ; issued separately, 10th June, 1920.] 



The British Government, though constantly urged by the New Zealand 

 Company, had persistently refused to recognize New Zealand as a British 

 colony, or even as a possession of the Kingdom. The company, therefore, 

 in order to force the hand of the Government, despatched the "Tory" 

 for Port Nicholson (afterwards named Wellington) on the 12th May, 1839, 

 for the purpose of purchasing land from the natives and forming a 

 settlement, the first colonists to follow almost at once. This forced the 

 Government into unwilling action, and an Imperial Proclamation was 

 issued on the 15th June, 1839, extending the boundaries of New South 

 Wales so as to include portions of New Zealand ; and on the 13th July 

 of the same year Captain Hobson was appointed Lieutenant-Governor 

 " of any territory which is or may be acquired in sovereignty by Her 

 Majesty in New Zealand." Among other instructions issued to Captain 

 Hobson by Lord Normanby was one to the effect that he should endeavour 

 to persuade the chiefs of New Zealand to unite themselves to Great 

 Britain ; he was also to establish a settled form of civil government, with 

 the free and intelligent consent of the natives expressed according to their 

 established usages ; to treat for the recognition of the sovereignty of Her 

 Majesty over the whole or any part of thS 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 valid title to land acquired from 

 the natives would thereafter be recognized unless confirmed by a Crown 

 grant ; to arrange a commission of inquiry as to what lands had been 

 lawfully acquired by British subjects and others ; to select and appoint a 

 Protector of Aborigines. 



Captain Hobson left in the " Druid " for Port Jackson, where he 

 arrived on the 24:th December, 1839. On the 14th January, 1840, Sir 

 George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, administered the oaths to 

 Captain Hobson, making him Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. He 

 also, in accordance with the instructions of Lord Normanby, issued three 

 Proclamations — the first extending the boundaries of New South Wales 

 to include any territory which then was, or might thereafter be, acquired 

 in sovereignty by Her Majesty in New Zealand ; the second appointing 

 Captain Hobson Lieutenant-Governor ; the third declaring that' all purchases 

 of land from the natives thereafter would be invalid unless supported by a 

 Crown grant. 



The new Lieutenant-Governor arrived in the Bay of Islands on the 

 29th January, 1840, where he next day read his commissions before the 

 people assembled. As a first step towards establishing the sovereignty of 

 Her Majesty he called together the natives, and on the 5th February, 1840, 

 were commenced the negotiations which, on the following day, resulted in 

 the Treaty of Waitangi being signed by forty-six principal chiefs. Others 

 signed it, or authorized copies of it, in various parts of the Islands at 

 later dates, the aggregate number of signatures obtained being 512. Being 



