1840: Dissolving the Port Nicholson Settlers’ Council

June 4, 2021

By AHNZ

Today in New Zealand history, 4 June, 1840, the free settlers of Port Nicholson were deprived of self-government by an invasion from the north. As the settlers sailed and then set up their new home in future Wellington, a gang of military officers plotted to install themselves as the masters of this and all the other little settlements springing up in New Zealand.

At first, William Hobson and his gang set upon Kororareka and made that place their capital. Soon the local government of that place, the Kororareka Association, was ended and Hobson’s ‘New Zealand’ was in charge. Within months, Hobson would repeat the same trick by occupying Auckland and making that their capital. Wellington would eventually fall the same way.

Hobson would have worn rank epaulettes like these ones (image left) on his shoulders but these particular ones (kept at the Museum of New Zealand) belonged to his Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland when he later held the same rank: Lieutenant-Governor. It was Shortland who was sent today to strip the Port Nicholson Settlers Council of its own government.

“Hobson was furious, characterising the actions of the council of colonists as ‘usurped authority’ and high treason.”- Archives NZ

“When Lieutenant Shortland visited Port Nichoson his conduct gave universal disgust. The most respectable settlers- all of them being his superiors in rank and education- were treated in a really most unjustifiable manner on several occasions.”- NZ Journal, October 1841

Shortland’s “abruptness in dissolving the Port Nicholson Settlers’ Council aroused resentment throughout the New Zealand Company’s settlements.”- Ref. A. H. McLintock; Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1966

“I think it right to mention that my men were all ready to land at a given signal had the people shewn any disposition to resist the Queens authority and that the blank Cartridge was only a substitute. “- Best’s journal

As an Anarchist, I’d have quite liked the free people to have resisted a Government taking over (Especially the Australian Government, as this was!) That is not what happened. Hobson’s State grew and grew and is still with us today. It is this State that we Kiwi Anarchists must defeat.

The hated Shortland didn’t just read a proclamation and lock everybody down in 1840. He was backed by 30 soldiers and six mounted police and a war ship on the day. Not to mention, the backup of the Royal Navy.

Today is a big day for Wellington but certainly not part of the history you’ll read emphasised in the State history books.

—
Image ref. Willoughby Shortland; Scott, Otago University, Wikipedia

Ref. Shortland’s Epaulettes with original tin container, Museum of New Zealand

Ref. Identical epaulettes that belonged to the Tasmanian Lieutenant-Governor of the same era, Royal Museums Greenwich

Ref. 1840: Wellington Anniversary

Ref. 1841: The Colony of New Zealand

Ref. ref. Tour of Duty : Midshipman Comber’s Journal Aboard HMS Herald, W.D. and M. McIntyre (1999); Canterbury University

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