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ILLUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER I
IN THE BEGINNING

"The Islands of New Zealand have long been resorted to by British Subjects on account of the valuable articles of commerce which they produce, and by reason of the peculiar advantages which they offer to whale-ships requiring repair. But the nearness of these Islands to the British settlements of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land has also led to their being resorted to as an asylum for fugitive British convicts, and such persons having associated with men left in New Zealand by whale-ships and other vessels, have formed a Society which indispensably requires the check of some contending authority. Her Majesty's Government have therefore deemed it expedient to station at New Zealand an officer, with the character and powers of a British Consul, and I have the satisfaction to acquaint you that the Queen has been graciously pleased to select you for that appointment." So wrote Viscount Palmerston, Foreign Secretary in Lord Melbourne's Cabinet, on August 13, 1839, to Captain William Hobson, R.N., and this letter may be taken as the first satisfactory evidence we have that the British Government had at last decided to accept their long-evaded responsibility in connection with New Zealand. Ever since the day when Captain Cook took possession of the country in the name and for the use of King George III., these islands had been allowed by succeeding British Governments to remain a neglected geographical quantity, and this very neglect had now robbed the nation of the title which Cook had by his splendid enterprise secured for it.

The Law of Nations has well defined the principle that before a country becomes entitled to claim sovereignty in any part of the globe "by right of discovery" it is not sufficient that the mariners of that country should sail forth and discover new lands; but there must be some effective act immediately following, such as systematic occupation, in order to bind other peoples to respect the discovering nation's claim.

During the latter part of the century which had elapsed between the time of Cook's proclamation to the world and the day when the Melbourne Cabinet decided that Britain must assume in earnest her responsibilities in the South Pacific there had not only been no systematic occupation of New Zealand by Britain, but rather a systematic renunciation of the nation's intention in that direction. The Duke of Wellington had petulantly declared that England had colonies enough, and Minister after Minister who had presided over the Colonial Office had in deeds, if not in words, endorsed this policy of anti-Imperialism. There