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even then only in the distant future (I:189f.). 48 However, with the knowledge of its development
three years after his initial visit following the Company first purchasing the land, he looks less
favourably at the high emphasis on commerce and the civilising hand of Europeans:
Nearly three years have elapsed since our first visit; and a spot scarcely known before that time,
and rarely if ever visited by Europeans, has become the seat of a large settlement, with nearly
5000 inhabitants. Where a few hundred natives then lived in rude villages, fearful of their
neighbours, but desirous of intercourse with Europeans, and just beginning to be initiated into the
forms of Christian worship by a native missionary, there is now a town, with warehouses, wharfs,
club-houses, horticultural and scientific societies, racecourses, - in short, with all the mechanism
of a civilized and commercial community; at this very place, where I then enjoyed in all its fulness
the wild aspect of nature, and where the inhabitants, wild and untamed, accorded well with their
native scenery, there is now the restless European, spreading around all the advantages and
disadvantages of civilization and trade. (I:67)
Thus, where the indigenous population once lived now exists only the institutions of European
civilisation embodied in shopkeepers and tradesmen, in which one is left with the impression that
the negative influences outweigh the positive. 49
The speed of progress for Auckland, on the other hand, the site chosen by Hobson to be
the seat of government (until it relinquished that position to Wellington in 1865), is certainly
48 “The prosperity of Wellington, which is situated at Port Nicholson, and is the capital of the New Zealand
Company, depends chiefly on the agricultural resources of this district, upon the early construction of roads to
connect it with the town, and upon the employment of steam-boats drawing little water for the navigation of the
rivers. These two latter requisites are essential for raising contemporaneously the prosperity of the country and town.
I should recommend the colonist who has but little capital to select the country rather than the town, as around
Wellington there is no great extent of available land, and its prosperity must be deferred until it is enabled, by the
produce of the agricultural districts, to exist as a commercial port. It must be expected that the rise of the colonies in
Cook’s Straits will be slow, although progressive, and that embarking capital in agricultural pursuits will most
securely and most immediately yield the greatest advantages” (I:189f.).
49 This is a far cry from his earlier views of the prospects of Port Nicholson as the “principal capital and exporting
place”, dated 27 July 1840, which, compared with the Bay Of Islands and River Thames, is “nearer to the whaling
ground, and would be the better staple place for the commodities derived from that business, one of the most
important which can be carried on in New Zealand. All competent men pronounce Port Nicholson to be one of the
finest and safest harbours in the world, and which can receive ships of any number and with any wind. It appears,
therefore, that Port Nicholson has the greatest chance of becoming the commercial capital of New Zealand. It is true
that the country round Port Nicholson is hilly, and for a great part can only be cultivated with difficulty. But it
appears to me that the flat land, as far as I know its extent, is of a size sufficient to support a populous town, and is of
a superior quality” (Dieffenbach, “To the Editor”, 53; cf. Ernest Dieffenbach, “Dr Dieffenbach’s Report: Report to
the Directors of the New Zealand Company, Respecting the Natural Productions and Present State of New Zealand”,
in: NZJ 2:31 27 March (1841): 83). (For further information on the early development of Wellington as a Company
settlement, see, for example, Gavin McLean, Wellington: The First Years of European Settlement 1840-1850.
Auckland: Penguin Books (NZ), 2000; Angela Ballara, “Te Whanganui-a-Tara: phases of Maori occupation of
Wellington Harbour c. 1800-1840”, in: The Making of Wellington 1800-1914. Eds. David Hamer and Roberta
Nicholls. Wellington: Victoria UP, 1990, 9-34; Rosemarie Tonk, “‘A Difficult and Complicated Question’: The New
Zealand Company’s Wellington, Port Nicholson, Claim”, in: ibid., 35-59; David Hamer, “Wellington on the Urban
Frontier”, in: ibid., 227-54; David McGill, The Pioneers of Port Nicholson. Wellington: Reed, 1984, esp. 19-47.)
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