This biography of Governor Hobson's rule in New Zealand is the most comprehensive one ever written. relying on a wealth of previously unutilised sources on the topic, it explores not only the man, but also the monumental historical forces that were swirling around him at the time. Over two years of research have gone into this work, and it promises to present a revised portrayal of New Zealand's first Governor.
The foreword to the bookhas been written by the present Governor-General, Sir Michael Hardy Boys.
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The Preface to Hobson: New Zealand's First Governor
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The Symonds Street Cemetery is today awkwardly and unceremoniously positioned between a motorway on the one side, and the fringe of Auckland's central business district on the other. It is one of New Zealand's most important historical cemeteries, not the least because it is the final resting place of Captain William Hobson - the country's first Governor, and one of the chief architects behind New Zealand's early period of British colonial rule.
This frail figure, mercilessly punished by an illness which eventually took his life, never fully managed to command the approval or admiration of the inhabitants of New Zealand in the way that other Governors had done so in their respective colonies. His physical presence exuded a weakness that was commented on by a number of his contemporaries, and yet, despite the huge obstacles he faced, Hobson courageously persisted in pursuing his policy objectives to the best of his abilities.
Hobson's arrival in the Bay of Islands in 1840 signalled a substantial elevation in the British commitment to New Zealand at a time when the British imperialist spirit was drained, and when the utility of colonies was being questioned at the highest levels of British Government. However, the rationale for Hobson's appointment was sound in the opinion of the Colonial Office, and was based on several justifications. First, there was the need to replace the ineffectual Resident, James Busby, who was continually on the verge of being recalled, and who was unable to arrest the alarming decline in public order in the colony since his appointment seven years earlier. Second, there was the menace posed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, whose inexhaustible fervour for the privately organised colonisation of New Zealand threatened to overwhelm any future attempts at official British rule in New Zealand, and third, the welfare of Maori in their own country was seriously at risk from the unchecked advances of British settlement.
For Hobson, the post of Lieutenant Governor was one for which he was ill-prepared, and to which he had shown no prior inclination. Any faint enthusiasm he may have had for his appointment soon evaporated on arrival when he was faced with the panoply of fixations and concerns that had permeated the thinking of so many of the settlers and Maori in New Zealand - concerns over trade, land acquisition, land retention, religious conversion, and political power. The political pressures these factors produced extinguished any prospect of a proactive administration led by Hobson. Instead, he became swamped by these demands, and lurched from one problem to the next with little prospect of surfacing.
Hobson's accomplishments during the two and a half years he presided over the fledgling colony have tended to be overshadowed by the Treaty of Waitangi, which he concluded with Maori representatives in 1840. This hastily drafted and poorly translated agreement has since assumed an importance that transcends other significant contemporary developments and initiatives. The Treaty of Waitangi - later described as the founding document of the country - was never intended by Hobson to endure as a fundamental domestic constitutional arrangement after May 1840. By this time, Hobson had lost patience with the tedious advancement of missionaries and others who were collecting signatures for the Treaty, and overcame this drawn-out process by proclaiming sovereignty over the whole country. It was these proclamations of sovereignty, and not the Treaty, which for Hobson's administration became the founding documents of formal British rule in New Zealand.
Hobson's margins of manoeuvre in New Zealand were shaped to a great extent by circumstances beyond his control or administrative capacities, thereby frequently giving the impression of personal weakness. Certainly, the more Hobson allowed himself to be swayed by the rabble of official and semi-official advisors that clung to him, the more New Zealand became a colony without direction. Policy decisions were altered according to whichever individual was exerting his influence the most on the Governor at any particular point in time. The Colonial Office had hoped that by appointing a naval officer, New Zealand would have a leader who was accustomed to giving commands and who would not tolerate dissension, but the straying circumstances around Hobson were unable to be woven by him into a coherent fabric. At a time when New Zealand needed an exceptional leader at its helm, armed with confidence and energy, none was forthcoming.
When Hobson died, there was no great sense of history to the event apparent in the colony. The death of New Zealand's first Governor attracted relatively little concern and even less sympathy from a society sinking into a dangerous economic slump, and still struggling to come to terms with the ruptures brought on by the unrelenting processes of colonisation. Hobson's necessary dependence on formal authority, rather than consent, as the foundation of his government had not always endeared him to his people, and in some quarters, he was openly reviled.
Yet, for all of Hobson's noted shortcomings, his rule over New Zealand between 1840 and 1842 was preferable to the potential anarchy which he defied. He was able to endure formidable episodes of dissatisfaction, and instilled into the population an acceptance of the instruments of British authority in the colony. The halcyon days of wholesale land-speculation were momentarily extinguished, a coherent justice system was installed, and sincere attempts were made not to bypass some of the concerns of Maori. Hobson's greatest achievement was that he managed to steer nimbly between the aspirations of the settlers, the apprehensions of the Maori, and the attacks of his many detractors, to lead the colony to a comparatively unprecedented period of political stability. That he finally succumbed to the searching strains of weak government, hastened by disorganisation, growing personal isolation, and a collapse of health, does not necessarily outweigh Hobson's achievements. He was successful in his chief motive of extending British rule to New Zealand, and managed this inevitable intervention as painlessly as any other colony had experienced.
In preparing this biography, I have cautiously avoided trying to make the subject conform to a particular theme or line of argument, and any themes that do arise tend to be incidental. Rather, I have approached the analysis of Hobson with two broad questions in mind: 'How did Hobson exercise his authority in New Zealand?' and 'To what extend did individuals or forces around him prevent him from fulfilling his duties as Governor?' Consequently, many of the episodes in this work have been retraced in the way that they unfolded for Hobson at the time, rather than with the didactic and 'superior' sort of hindsight that necessarily distorts as it attempts to simplify and clarify. Hobson's decisions are often much more explicable when the surrounding events and circumstances are seen from his eyes.
This book relies strongly on primary sources to support its case. Most of the extracts in the text are reproduced exactly as they were written, without the adulterating influences of the paraphrasing to which other historians seem all too ready to yield. In addition to Hobson's own official dispatches, extensive reference has been made to the writings of those in contact with Hobson. These appear in a multitude of formats, and vary substantially in their value - from the incidentally insightful journals of Best and Mathew, the more intellectually penetrating observations of Swainson, and the prudent though sometimes procrastinating instructions emanating from the Colonial Office, to the unequivocally hostile works generated by Heaphy and E. J. Wakefield, from whose assaults Hobson's image has long been in need of repair.
However, the hagiographical treatment of Hobson by his only previous biographer, Guy Scholefield, has also been detrimental to achieving a better understanding of Hobson's performance in New Zealand. Scholefield's portrayal is steeped in apologetic tones, and often avoids tackling the tougher questions relating to Hobson's period of rule in New Zealand. Scholefield seems to have been more concerned with sanitising Hobson's image than with offering an objective appraisal. A need therefore exists to revise the existing picture of Hobson, and I have attempted to accord him a more impartial hearing, relying on the surviving evidence as well as a degree of insight where appropriate in order to reconstruct the life of this ordinary man, placed in the most extraordinary set of circumstances.
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