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departure from Auckland to Coromandel Harbour on the Kate on 5 October that same year before
leaving for England on the Planter on the 10th. 29 As were the arrangements of release from the
Company, he was obliged to hand over all copyrights to written material while under their
employ, as well as all reports, manuscripts and specimens, in exchange for the total sum of £500.
Upon his return to England on 13 January 1842, 30 however, Dieffenbach did manage to turn his
experiences into the two-volume work Travels in New Zealand (1843), 31 a scientific monograph
and account based on his early reports and narratives and published the following year in London
independent of the New Zealand Company, despite some of his writings previously finding
themselves in the New Zealand Journal, a fortnightly periodical designed to provide information
on current Company activities. 32 Although it is unclear whether Dieffenbach had outright
permission from the Company Directors to publish this work, the former Company employee,
John Wallis Barnicoat, who reportedly witnessed the events, records in his journal that censorship
would have been exercised if unfavourable comments were made toward the Company and their
‘image’ of New Zealand. 33 Whether explicit censorship took place or not is unknown, but not
unlikely, as no original manuscript exists, 34 but one thing is certain, not everything written by
faithfully reported; and that only those parts which suited the purposes of the Company were published” (17 Feb
1841, cited in: ibid., 81; see 80-83). Other biographers, however, would have us believe Dieffenbach received
numerous offers which he turned his back on in favour of returning home to a country which expelled him: “‘Ich
habe zu große Liebe zum Vaterlande,’ sagte er, ‘als daß ich die mir sich hier bietende Gelegenheit, ein reicher Mann
zu werden, benutzen möchte; auch ist meine Anhänglichkeit an die englische Nation nicht so groß, als daß sie mir für
das Vaterland Ersatz zu bieten vermöchte, und ich verfehle nie, alles, was groß und schön an den Engländern ist,
ihrer Verwandtschaft mit der deutschen Nation zuzuschreiben’” (F. Dieffenbach, “Erforscher Neu-Seelands”, 86).
29 New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette 1:15 9 Oct (1841): 2; The Times (London) 14 Jan (1842): 2. Ensign
Abel Dottin William Best writes on 8 October 1841: “Dieffenbach left on the Kate to go to England in the Planter. I
cannot conceive the reasons for this move nor was I aware that he was gone untill [sic] the next day” (A. D. W. Best,
The Journal of Ensign Best, 1837-1843. Edited with an introduction and notes by Nancy M. Taylor. Wellington:
Owen (Govt. Printer), 1966, 326).
30 The Times (London) 14 Jan (1842): 2.
31 Ernest Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand. Facsim. Ed. 2 vols. Christchurch: Capper Press, 1974. (All further
references to this work will be given in parentheses in the text.)
32 In addition to various excerpts from New Zealand and the New Zealanders (1841), a publication for the
Aborigines’ Protection Society, and an account of the Chatham Islands (1841), a handful of articles, including two
reports to the Directors and one narrative were published in the New Zealand Journal in 1840-41.
33 “He was about to publish a book on New Zealand when the Company intimated through their solicitors that
proceedings would be instituted against him if he published anything unfavourable to their interests. After this threat
proposals were made (not exactly from the same quarters) of an arbitration the event of which was that the Dr.
consented to accept £500 and give all his manuscripts up together [with] their copyright to the New Zealand
Company of which of course they may publish as much as suits their own purposes. In this way all truths
unfavourable to the Colony are suppressed and the favourable ones are put forward to convey an idea of New
Zealand, thus giving rise to those extravagant notions of this country which result in feelings of intensely bitter
disappointment” (9 Feb 1843, cited in: Bell, Ernest Dieffenbach, 86).
34 Andersen, however, notes that there were two original issues of Travels in New Zealand with minor differences
between them, specifically on page 3 of the preface, in which the statement “[m]y researches […] might have been
far more complete, had it been in my power to make an entire survey of New Zealand, but this was denied me […]”
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