1848: The Kemp Deed
June 12, 2019
By AHNZ
171 Years ago today: 12 June, 1848: The Kemp Deed was signed at Akaroa with 40 leading Maoris. For the Crown, Henry Tacy Kemp. This is the big purchase of today’s Canterbury and West Coast.
Kemp had assembled 500 Maori at Akaroa, including picking up the principle chiefs who lived in Otago on the HMS Fly. It was stormy and snowing in Akaroa so accommodations must have been at a premium for the hundreds gathered. (Perhaps the French Colonists of Akaroa opened some bed and breakfasts and allowed for a bit of ‘freedom camping’?) A possible impending humanitarian crisis there so not the time to dilly dally…
Apart from money, the sellers were very anxious to quickly create a European buffer between themselves Te Rauparaha, whose menace was still very current. When Governor Grey visited Akaroa earlier in they year they asked for this deal and so it was that Kemp was sent. But it would take months to survey the 20 million acres of uncharted territory! Definitely a summer job but the Maoris could not wait for their buffer or their money so made a special request for the Crown to bestow appropriate reserves in the course of time.
And you’d like to think this would be the end of a lovely origin story. Everybody goes home, they’ve got what they want. The Canterbury Settlers arrive with clear maps, Maoris are paid fully and finally, reserves set and done with, no more massacres in the South Island due to Te Rauparaha….
Sorry, no! None of that turned out to be the case. What happened instead and why is another story.
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Image ref. Snowy Akaroa; NZ Landscapes
Image ref. Henry Tacy Kemp; Shared by Donna Gregory-Marshall, OLD NORTH AUCKLAND / NORTHLAND, Facebook
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