Backbencher

Lecture 4 told us about the settlement of New Zealand and Australia by Europeans. New Zealand was settled by pilgrims while Australia is known for its settlement with convict labor.

England suffered from increasing crime and the overfilling of Hulks to store prisoners, so there became an idea to transport these convicts to Australia and use them for labor in constructing a new colony. Convicts were often Irish republicans, Canadian revolutionaries, and petty criminals. The First Fleet arrived in Australia and what to follow was known as the starvation years. The officers had very negative reactions upon their sight of the land.

New Zealand had a systematic method for colonization. In New Zealand, only small parcels of land would be available to the settlers, and it would be sold at a sufficient price. New Zealand would be a cultured class of landowners, and some people would be laborers on the farms, but only for a temporary time. New Zealand was in hopes to be a reproduction of English life, but better. There were gold rushes to Otago and Westland that produced unplanned growth from American, Chinese, and Australian immigrants.

To me, the idea of New Zealand to be a planned society of noble people was the result of some people’s feelings that their fellow man had failed at colonizing Australia. Since New Zealand was a planned colonization, did they have a plan for the Maori people that were already inhabiting the land?