Frederick Alonzo Carrington, "The Father of New Plymouth": His Work in Selecting and Surveying the Site of the Town and Settlement of New Plymouth 1841-1843

Abstract

The association of Frederick Alonzo Carrington with "The Plymouth Company for Colonising New Zealand from the West of England", commences with a visit paid in 1839 by Captain King, newly appointed Chief Surveyor to the New Zealand Company, to the Surveyor General's Office in the Tower of London. Here Carrington and his elder brother were following their profession as surveyors in the Ordnance Survey Department, and it was during the discussion between Captain King and the two brothers that Frederick Alonzo conceived the ambition of proceeding to New Zealand. As a result of Captain King's enthusiastic description of the new country and its possibilities, the advice of the then Major General of Ordnance and the inducements offered, Carrington shortly afterwards accepted the appointment of Chief Surveyor to the Plymouth Company. In view of subsequent events, these inducements are worthy of notice: in addition to a salary of £300 per annum and rations for himself and family, the sum of 4d. per acre for all lands surveyed, plus one per cent of the price of all lands sold, were to form the Chief Surveyor's remuneration. His duties were comprehensive and onerous: he was to select from the holdings of the New Zealand Company an area of 11,000 acres of "available" land for the New Plymouth settlement; at the same time making provision for the addition of a further 50,000 acres adjoining the first 11,000; to select the site for, survey and lay out the town and suburban section in accordance with the New Zealand Company's general plan, adapting same to the exigencies of the district.