The Protectorate of Aborigines 1840-1846

Abstract

New Zealand in the Crown Colony period was the scene of a bitter political conflict. The protagonists were on the one hand, the local agents of the New Zealand Company and the Company's settlers, and on the other the local Government. At issue were diametrically opposed conceptions of New Zealand's future development. The colonists sought the development of New Zealand under their domination and control. The Government stood for the maintenance and protection of the position of the Maori. The desire to provide such protection impelled the final decision of the British Government to intervene in New Zealand, and it was this spirit which pre-eminently fired the spirit of the first Governors and their officials. It was as the Government's front-line troops that the Protectors of Aborigines fought over the contemporary battlefields of New Zealand politics. The Protectorate did not long survive. The cause whose most practical instrument it was designed to be, slowly yielded before the increasing political power of the settlers, and it was one of the first casualties. Governor Grey swept the department out of existence four months after he assumed power. This thesis will attempt to analyse and describe the work that it did during its six years of life.