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more impressive as it is situated in a more favourable location through better laid planning, yet
this time it is tarnished by the speculators who are, or at least have been, at work there:
The government town of Auckland, considering the short time it has existed, has made
considerable progress. Its population, which amounts to more than 2000, has been drawn together
from all parts of the island. A bank has been formed, fine barracks have been built of scoriæ; and
were it not for a general spirit of over-speculation in land, without any attempt to explore the home
resources of that island, there would be every ground for hoping that the place would gradually
and steadily rise into importance. […] In short, it appears to me that there can be no question but
that the place has been very judiciously chosen for the site of a town, as commanding a great
extent of cultivable land in its neighbourhood, great facility of communication with the coast and
the interior of the northern island, and as being a central point for the most powerful native tribes,
the Nga-pui [Ngapuhi] to the northward, the Waikato to the southward, and the Nga-te-hauwa
[Ngati Haua] to the eastward, separating them in a military point of view, but uniting them for the
purposes of civilization and commerce (I:280-82). 50
For Dieffenbach, the most promising regions for European settlement are yet to be
realised, with the pinnacle being “the whole district of Taranaki, as far as I have yet seen, [which]
rivals any in the world in fertility, beauty, and fitness for becoming the dwelling-place of civilised
European communities” (I:150). 51 When it comes to acquiring the land, however, he appears
somewhat pleased and anxious that the Company succeeds with the purchase of the territory
(I:171). 52 It seems here the Company is the lesser of three evils as Dieffenbach is neither in
favour of private individuals, nor missionaries owning land, not to mention the various
speculators, “land-jobbers” and “land-sharks” that exist in New Zealand. 53 This must of course be
50 For further information on the early development of Auckland, see, for example, Una Platts, The Lively Capital:
Auckland 1840-1865. Christchurch: Avon Fine Prints Ltd, 1971; Winifred MacDonald, Auckland, Yesterday and
Today: An outline of the development and every-day life of New Zealand’s largest city since its foundation in 1840.
2 nd Ed. Revised and enlarged. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1960; A.W. Reed, Auckland: The City of the Seas.
Wellington: Reed, 1955; John Barr, The City of Auckland New Zealand, 1840-1920. Whitcombe & Tombs:
Auckland, 1922.
51 See also I:221,229, 269, 310.
52 Upon hearing the news that the Tory’s return had only been delayed by its refitting at Kaipara after a grounding, he
comments: “This news relieved us from the anxiety which we had felt as to the possibility of securing the Taranaki
district for the New Zealand Company; as since my arrival churchmen and laymen had vied with each other to obtain
possession of that district. On the arrival of the Guide a liberal price was given to the natives for their land, and the
good will of the Waikato purchased by presents. Thus the New Zealand Company became proprietors of the finest
district in New Zealand, which offers to the colonist, besides its natural resources, the advantage of there being no
natives on the land, with the exception of the small remnant of the Nga-te-awa [Te Atiawa] tribe at Nga-Motu
[Ngamotu or Sugarloaf Point]” (I:171).
53 Dieffenbach gives several examples of interested parties he wishes to prevent. The first is a Bay of Islands
missionary who goes to Port Nicholson in order to prevent the Company from concluding a treaty and purchasing the
land “to secure the best parts of the land, not indeed for the church, but merely for himself” (I:94). Second is an
example of a European from Kawhia and many Maori who come to the Taranaki district in order to dissuade locals
from selling land to the Company “not, however, from any disinterested intention, or for the sake of the Taranaki
natives, but because some parties were anxious to buy the land for themselves, either from the small remaining body
of the original native proprietors, or, if they would not agree to the terms proposed, from their conquerors, the
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