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Town of Wellington, Port Nicholson, from Rai - Warra - Warra Hill (From Samuel Charles Brees, Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, John Williams and Co., London, 1848) Twelve months in Wellington / by John Wood (1843)

Chapter 16
Puffing, or Self-supporting colonies

Contents: narrative | chapters: 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19
IT was observed by Lord Stanley that this, the theme of so much laudation to fireside emigrants, had produced in operation much misery and suffering in South Australia; and we have now to add not a little in New Zealand. The puffing system has, indeed, been in England eminently successful, and if we are to credit the Fifth Report of the New Zealand Company, their settlements abroad are at a high pitch of prosperity. These yearly circulars, embodying the most captivating lures, are put forward with an audacity well calculated to draw many to New Zealand. As one example of the misrepresentations put forward through the agency of this Company, and as a warning to men who are still inclined to place implicit trust in them, we will take the liberty of dissecting the paper in question. (footnote 1)

Fifth Report of the New Zealand Company

"Colonel Wakefield reported in a letter dated the 7th November last: 'The produce of the valley of the Hutt will this year be nearly all exported or consumed by ships visiting us, whilst the cultivation of the town-land and vicinity will supply the wants of the residents’."

We cannot believe Colonel Wakefield wrote anything so false, for this reason ; when we left the settlement, twelve months after the date of his letter, the only grain grown upon the town-land was an acre and a half of wheat, upon Wellington Terrace, by Mr. Smith, of the Union Bank. Even the Gazette (footnote 2) could not reckon Mr. Watts' previous crop (that which, according to the Colonel, was to supply the settlement) at more than nine tons of flour. This is really too bad. Wellington, up to the hour we left it, had been indebted to the aborigines even for its supply of potatoes, and these were chiefly brought by sea from Wanganui, Manawatu, and the Chatham Islands.

Residence of Wm Swainson Esq at the Hutt, by Samuel Charles Brees, Pictorial Illustrations of New Zealand, John Williams and Co., London, 1848.

Does the following extract from their own paper (footnote 3) justify Colonel Wakefield's statements: - "I fear your market (Port Nicholson) will be over supplied, large quantities being on the way from hence (Sydney). The Agnes had 40 tons; the Eleanor and Bright Planet 233 tons; the Thomas Crisp 80 tons; the Brothers will also have flour ; and doubtless the Lady Leigh will take some."
Or does the actual state of the Wellington market in December last, as exhibited in the advising columns of the Gazette confirm the Company's report?

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The cargo of the Cheerful, 150 tons of Chilean flour.
Ex. Elizabeth. 300 tons of Chilean flour.
Ex. Amwell. 30 tons of Sydney flour.
And to add to the above, three vessels, the Brougham, Jane Goude, and Nelson, had been sent to Valparaiso for more flour. Mr. Swainson, speaking of the inundations of the Hutt, writes - "The amount of damage to the standing crops is not much ; but these crops are so small that they are scarcely worth mentioning." After this who would not cry Shame! Shame! But perhaps we may be told that potatoes have been exported from Port Nicholson. True, and as the history of the trade, as far as it has gone, is rather amusing, we will relate the particulars for the edification of the New Zealand Company.
"The First Export"

"We have long exported oil and other valuable produce brought here from the coast, in exchange for the various articles obtained from the merchants of the port ; but we believe, until now, no article produced within the port has been shipped to a foreign country or neighbouring colony for sale. On Tuesday the Lady Leigh commenced our export trade, by taking to Sydney twenty tons of very fine potatoes, grown by Mr. Molesworth upon the Hutt. Mentioning the Hutt we may observe, that we understand that fifteen tons of potatoes to the acre have been obtained, and that a small patch of wheat, upon measurement, showed the crop to be equal to ninety bushels to the acre. Poor, pitiable, starving, helpless, Port Nicholson settlers!"

In the Gazette of May 7, 1842, appeared the annexed flourish, intended as so much dust for the eyes of the English public. The same chronicler had informed us in a former number of his paper that "some" of the same crop of potatoes had sold for £15 a ton. This price one would have thought remunerating. But what of that? Had not the Directors been informed that the produce of the Hutt would this year be nearly all be exported; and in shipping fifteen or twenty tons of potatoes to New South Wales, the Company's agent literally kept his word. (footnote 4)

"Your Directors are informed by Mr. Heaphy, late their draftsman in the colony (several of whose interesting views have already been published) that when he left Wellington in November last thirty-one individual capitalists were actually engaged in clearing and cultivating land in the valley of the Hutt, in the Porirua and Ohiro district, in the Karori valley, round the harbour, and at Lyall's Bay. It may confidently be expected that the first fruits of this energetic attention to the great source of all real and enduring wealth, that effectual progress will soon be made in the systematic growth and preparation for shipment to this country of the flax, which appears destined by nature to be the staple export of the agricultural districts of New Zealand ; and which it is understood is already supplied in considerable quantities to the Sydney market."
Supposing Mr. Heaphy's account correct, can the New Zealand Company be in earnest in congratulating themselves because thirty-one individuals have actually set themselves down amid 110,000 acres of as rugged land, generally, as any in mountainous New Zealand? It looks something like burlesque to talk "of the first fruits of this energetic attention." Many months after Mr. Heaphy had left the settlement Mr. Swainson thus describes its principal agricultural district:
The Hutt - "Out of 75 sections, or 7500 acres, given out in this noble valley, I do not believe there are 100 acres in actual cultivation, and not more than ten or twelve sections have been let. Such is the effect of apportioning out land placed in a wilderness. Who will ever think of growing produce for sale, if there are no means of bringing it to market? It is in vain that the agents of the absentee proprietors offer the most 'liberal terms' to such as will rent the upper section of the Hutt. Nobody will take them." (footnote 5)
The Clydeside after a twelve month's gathering, took to England, according to the Sydney custom entry, one ton, 6cwt. of flax.
"There are 445 houses in Wellington, exclusively of the neighbouring villages; 195 substantially built of brick or wood, at an aggregate cost of £23,000. Many of the dwellings and warehouses are stated to be excellent, and some of the former to possess much architectural beauty."
When we arrived in Wellington, a month after Mr. Heaphy had left it, the only brick-built house in the town was one belonging to a publican named Jenkins. When we left it twelve months afterwards there were nine, including as one the new barracks for emigrants. Yet this Company unblushingly assert that at the former period there were one hundred and ninety-five houses "substantially built of brick or wood," conveying an impression that the majority of them were brick buildings. Let the reader judge for himself respecting such glaring falsehoods. The architectural beauty, the ninety bushels an acre, and the Hutt export trade have no existence, and are got up merely for the amusement of the Company and the deception of the public.
"From another authentic source your Directors have learned that the receipts of the custom-house, in the first month after it was opened, amounted to £1000."
Two things are proved by the following letter, namely, that the customs revenue has either not increased, or that the Company have been, as in other matters, grossly deceived.
To the Editor of the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator

Custom-house, Wellington;
June 11, 1842.

"Sir, I observe in your paper of this date a report of a speech by Mr. Earp, at a public meeting, held at the Exchange Te Aro on the 7th instant, in which Mr. Earp appears to have made the following statement 'He (Mr. Earp) had it from a source upon whom he could place the utmost reliance, that the sub-collector of customs had acknowledged to him that the last quarter's revenue from customs duties alone was £4500 or £18,000 per annum.'
From what source Mr. Earp has derived this information I cannot imagine, as it certainly did not emanate from me, and is in itself most grossly incorrect.

I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
P. D. Hunts, Sub-Collector."

Land suitable for building near the beach was letting at the close of last year for short terms of years, for 10s. per lineal foot of street frontage; and that on the beach for £1 per foot, water frontage. Commerce and trade were flourishing, as is indeed proved by the great number of vessels which have visited the port during the short period of its settlement."
"There may be a great show of prosperity in Wellington - high rents, handsome stores, and plenty of ships - but it requires no great foresight to predict the fate of a colony when everything is consumed and nothing produced, where there is no agriculture; no manufactures, and no roads. Growing potatoes on the sides of the hills, and feeding a few herds of cattle in the swamps and flats, is not such farming as will save the colony. This is the conclusion I have formed after a year's observation, and is that of nearly all the intelligent men I have conversed with" - From Remarks on the present state of the Colony, by William Swainson, F.R.S etc etc.

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Footnotes
1. [All indented quotes in this chapter are] from The New Zealand Journal of June 11, 1842
2. Gazette of June 25, 1842
3. Gazette of June 1842
4. The customs entry is 15 tons
5. William Swainson, F.R.S, F.L.S., etc, a settler upon the Hutt.

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