Independent of the natural peculiar adaptation of New Zealand for a
British colony, there are several very cogent reasons to induce Britain
to occupy this country without a moment’s delay.
I. In the present posture of affairs, when Russia and the United States
are gradually extending their territory, increasing their means, and
preparing for, or at least looking forward to, a contest with Britain
for the naval supremacy, it is for us to look around over earth and
ocean, and to pre-occupy, if possible, every favourable position.
In glancing at the map of the eastern hemisphere, where, from the
extending territorial possessions of Russia, and the great and rapidly
increasing trade of the United States, as well as of Britain, a
considerable part of the contest may be expected to be carried on,
any one must remark the commanding position of New Zealand,--with
innumerable harbours, with vast naval resources, standing forth like
an extended rampart in advance of, and covering our wide Australian
possessions, and having the whole of the Pacific under its lee. In
marking these advantages, one is disposed to inquire,--Has Britain
not stirred to secure this most important position, in reference to
curbing the United States and Russia in the East,--this most invaluable
acquisition in reference to augmenting our trade and resources? Has she
not conciliated the natives, who are a warlike maritime race, capable
of forming excellent seamen and shipwrights, and as such would be most
valuable auxiliaries? Has she not erected forts at the Bay of Islands
and in Cook’s Straits, under whose guns our numerous South Sea whalers
and our Australian traders (they pass New Zealand homeward) could take
shelter in case of hostilities? She has done nothing of all this. She
has only thought of a plan to afford her a pretence for preventing
others (on the dog-in-the-manger principle) from colonizing this
valuable country. She has sent out one solitary Resident, and made some
sort of an acknowledgment of a New Zealand flag.
II. Another reason for the friendly occupation of New Zealand in
provident policy, scarcely second to the above, has, I believe, never
been taken into view. From the unsteady climate and extreme droughts
of our colonies in New Holland, they, as they become more populous,
will be periodically subjected to destructive famine, unless some
neighbouring country, whose climate does not partake of the same
vicissitudes, can afford them supplies. Excepting New Zealand, the
distance to other countries from whence sufficient supplies could
be obtained is so great, that extreme horrors of famine might be
experienced before intelligence of their wants could go out, and
supplies back could reach them.
III. There is yet another pressing motive for the immediate occupation
of New Zealand. No other branch of maritime industry has increased
so much of late years as the Southern Whale-fishery. This has arisen
partly from the recent development of the business itself, and partly
from the failure of the Northern Whale-fishery. From the general
resort of the southern whalers to the shores of the New Zealand group,
in whose firths and bays much of the fishery is carried on, there
can be no doubt it is fitted beyond any other place for the seat of
this trade. There are at present 15,000 seamen and 150,000 tons of
shipping engaged in it. An economic alteration in the conducting of the
fishery is now in progress. Instead of vessels proceeding on a tedious
three years’ voyage from the United States, France, or Britain, the
fishery is now, to a considerable extent, being carried on by boats
or small vessels constantly employed in the business (bay fishing),
and the prepared oil conveyed to Europe and other markets in common
merchantmen. Nearly three-fourths of the fishing is now in the hands
of the United States, and a little less than one-fourth British. But
were the occupation of the whole of the New Zealand group to take
place, there is no doubt, from the superior cheapness and conveniency
with which the fishery could be carried on by the New Zealand British,
that the greater part of it would soon be in British hands. It would
afford a rich field for the enterprise of the colonists and native New
Zealanders, to whose character and maritime habits this employment
is peculiarly suited; and it is incomparably the best training for
maritime war. The policy of immediately occupying New Zealand in
reference to this most important object is manifest.
IV. In a philanthropic point of view, New Zealand is a most eligible
field for colonization. It is perhaps the sole instance, at least the
most striking instance, of a thin or scattered population which would
not necessarily suffer, but might greatly benefit by the immigration
of Europeans into their country. The aborigines of the greater part
of America and of New Holland are, or, when in existence, were
_hunters_, subsisting upon the _feræ naturæ_. From long-continued use,
constituting instinctive habit of race, they had themselves become, or
were, in a manner, _feræ naturæ_, altogether incapable of, or extremely
inapt to, agricultural labour and fixed residence, at least without
a very gradual change of habit extending to several generations. As
these hunters, in their pristine state, have their numbers balanced
to the hunter means of subsistence which the whole country produces,
the entrance of the civilized races, occupying a portion of their
territory, not only abridges their hunting-grounds, but also by the
employment of firearms speedily diminishes the game in the adjacent
territory. Thence, if the hunter-aborigines do not fall by the musket
of the stranger they are forced by famine to invade the hunting-grounds
of the neighbouring tribes, and war ensues. Thus the aboriginal race
is gradually extirpated by slaughter and famine, assisted by the new
diseases and intoxicating poisons of the stranger. Much the same takes
place with nomadic nations,--tribes subsisting principally by flocks
and herds,--such as the Hottentot and Caffre of South Africa, who are
also already, at least were, balanced in number to the means of their
_pastoral_ subsistence. These, when encroached upon by and forced to
retreat before the fire-armed European, have not space left for the
support of their herds. They are driven by necessity to trespass in
search of pasture upon their neighbour’s territory, and exterminating
war is the result. On the other hand, the New Zealanders, in a country,
although so rich in vegetation, almost destitute of game, and without
herds of any kind, have been accustomed to raise their food, with the
exception of fish, by agricultural labour (either by digging for roots,
or digging to produce roots); and, instead of being peopled up to
the means of subsistence obtainable by agriculture, do not reach the
one-hundredth part, their numbers having been kept down apparently by
their ferocity and by anarchy. The entrance of Europeans in a friendly
manner (such as is here proposed) affording them protection to person
and property, domestic animals, better implements of husbandry, more
valuable fruit-bearing trees and edible plants, all the advantages
and comforts of civilization, which tend so much to the increase of
population, and which they, from their character and previous habits,
appear capable of receiving and benefiting by, must, instead of
operating to their injury or destruction, prove to them the greatest
blessing.
In the case of the scant-peopling hunter, the imperative necessity of
an overflowing population, such as that of Britain, is a justifiable
reason for breaking up his preserves. In the case of the pastoral
people of South Africa, it is unjustifiable to invade their territory
and disturb their quiet feeding herds, at least while any part of
the world available for British emigration remains under the hunter
occupancy. But in such an anomalous case as New Zealand, where a very
scant agricultural population occupy a few straggling districts of an
extensive country, with the exception of these petty districts, to
them entirely useless, and which, from defects in the social order and
other circumstances, they are not only totally unfitted for populating,
but are even fast decreasing in numbers; and where a steady general
government introduced by the emigrants would, in all probability,
remedy the consuming evils under which the race is disappearing,--it is
here, if we are at all to be guided by reason, humanity, justice,--it
is surely here where we ought to locate our overflowing population.
In the case of a region only inhabited by a few scattered barbarous
tribes, totally incapable of instituting any responsible government,
and where, in consequence, the country and adjacent sea are infested
with lawless bands of robbers and pirates, any nation which possesses
the power has a right to interfere, establish a government, and
colonize,--surely much more so in the case of New Zealand by Britain
than in the case of Florida by the United States.