Part 2: Early Interactions

(This is the 2 part of a 7 part series on my final term paper for Ethnics. Click here to start at part one)

Early Interactions

At first, contact between the native tribes and Europeans consisted mainly of trade and missionary expeditions. The first European settlers were sealers and whalers who, dispute a few violent incidences, established a working relationship with the natives. Each group saw advantages from working together: The Europeans gained from the superior fishing, timber, and flax New Zealand offered (Bourassa and Strong 230). “The Maori were also intensely eager to acquire all of the benefits of European technology without surrendering their social institutions, core values, or distinctive way of life” (Ausubel 219). The Maori were able to use the new tools and constructed timber mill and new boats so as to travel farther. They also quickly learned the new farming techniques brought by the missionaries and the Potato became a major staple crop. Early on the adaption to a European way of life damaged lifestyles of the Maori people: “Maori became less hardy when they took to European clothing, and the cheap rum of the sealers and whalers took its toll in a race unaccustomed to stimulants” (Alves 12). Also the introduction of new diseases from the Europeans took a devastating toll on the Maori wiping out nearly 200,000 from the mid-1700s to 1854 (Bourassa and Strong 231).

During the early part of the 19th Century, various immigrants, mostly English, from Australia made their way over to New Zealand to invest and land speculation became rampant (Ibid 231). In 1932, James Busby was appointed as official British Resident to ease British fears of violence reported. The British shared concerns of Maori chiefs of a French invasion and moved towards declaring sovereignty by cession from the chiefs in the settled areas (Alves 19). The Crown decided that a new Colony should be established, and in 1839 sent Captain William Hobson as Consul to negotiate with the Maori leaders, appoint a Protector for them, make sure Maori land rights were guaranteed, and make sure the Crown had exclusive rights to land titles. Hobson declared Crown authority over all British settlers and together with Busby called together a meeting of the northern chiefs. Together they drafted the Treaty of Waitangi, which officially established British sovereignty over New Zealand. Such negotiations began the Crown’s control over the Maori, which steadily became more dominant over time.