ESPECIAL REASONS FOR COLONIZING NEW ZEALAND.
Independent of the natural peculiar adaptation of New Zealand for a British colony, there are several very cogent reasons to induce Britain to occupy this country without a moment’s delay.
I. In the present posture of affairs, when Russia and the United States are gradually extending their territory, increasing their means, and preparing for, or at least looking forward to, a contest with Britain for the naval supremacy, it is for us to look around over earth and ocean, and to pre-occupy, if possible, every favourable position.
In glancing at the map of the eastern hemisphere, where, from the extending territorial possessions of Russia, and the great and rapidly increasing trade of the United States, as well as of Britain, a considerable part of the contest may be expected to be carried on, any one must remark the commanding position of New Zealand,—with innumerable harbours, with vast naval resources, standing forth like an extended rampart in advance of, and covering our wide Australian possessions, and having the whole of the Pacific under its lee. In marking these advantages, one is disposed to inquire,—Has Britain not stirred to secure this most important position, in reference to curbing the United States and Russia in the East,—this most invaluable acquisition in reference to augmenting our trade and resources? Has she not conciliated the natives, who are a warlike maritime race, capable of forming excellent seamen and shipwrights, and as such would be most valuable auxiliaries? Has she not erected forts at the Bay of Islands and in Cook’s Straits, under whose guns our numerous South Sea whalers and our Australian traders (they pass New Zealand homeward) could take shelter in case of hostilities? She has done nothing of all this. She has only thought of a plan to afford her a pretence for preventing others (on the dog-in-the-manger principle) from colonizing this valuable country. She has sent out one solitary Resident, and made some sort of an acknowledgment of a New Zealand flag.
II. Another reason for the friendly occupation of New Zealand in provident policy, scarcely second to the above, has, I believe, never been taken into view. From the unsteady climate and extreme droughts of our colonies in New Holland, they, as they become more populous, will be periodically subjected to destructive famine, unless some neighbouring country, whose climate does not partake of the same vicissitudes, can afford them supplies. Excepting New Zealand, the distance to other countries from whence sufficient supplies could be obtained is so great, that extreme horrors of famine might be experienced before intelligence of their wants could go out, and supplies back could reach them.
III. There is yet another pressing motive for the immediate occupation of New Zealand. No other branch of maritime industry has increased so much of late years as the Southern Whale-fishery. This has arisen partly from the recent development of the business itself, and partly from the failure of the Northern Whale-fishery. From the general resort of the southern whalers to the shores of the New Zealand group, in whose firths and bays much of the fishery is carried on, there can be no doubt it is fitted beyond any other place for the seat of this trade. There are at present 15,000 seamen and 150,000 tons of shipping engaged in it. An economic alteration in the conducting of the fishery is now in progress. Instead of vessels proceeding on a tedious three years’ voyage from the United States, France, or Britain, the fishery is now, to a considerable extent, being carried on by boats or small vessels constantly employed in the business (bay fishing), and the prepared oil conveyed to Europe and other markets in common merchantmen. Nearly three-fourths of the fishing is now in the hands of the United States, and a little less than one-fourth British. But were the occupation of the whole of the New Zealand group to take place, there is no doubt, from the superior cheapness and conveniency with which the fishery could be carried on by the New Zealand British, that the greater part of it would soon be in British hands. It would afford a rich field for the enterprise of the colonists and native New Zealanders, to whose character and maritime habits this employment is peculiarly suited; and it is incomparably the best training for maritime war. The policy of immediately occupying New Zealand in reference to this most important object is manifest.
IV. In a philanthropic point of view, New Zealand is a most eligible field for colonization. It is perhaps the sole instance, at least the most striking instance, of a thin or scattered population which would not necessarily suffer, but might greatly benefit by the immigration of Europeans into their country. The aborigines of the greater part of America and of New Holland are, or, when in existence, were hunters, subsisting upon the feræ naturæ. From long-continued use, constituting instinctive habit of race, they had themselves become, or were, in a manner, feræ naturæ, altogether incapable of, or extremely inapt to, agricultural labour and fixed residence, at least without a very gradual change of habit extending to several generations. As these hunters, in their pristine state, have their numbers balanced to the hunter means of subsistence which the whole country produces, the entrance of the civilized races, occupying a portion of their territory, not only abridges their hunting-grounds, but also by the employment of firearms speedily diminishes the game in the adjacent territory. Thence, if the hunter-aborigines do not fall by the musket of the stranger they are forced by famine to invade the hunting-grounds of the neighbouring tribes, and war ensues. Thus the aboriginal race is gradually extirpated by slaughter and famine, assisted by the new diseases and intoxicating poisons of the stranger. Much the same takes place with nomadic nations,—tribes subsisting principally by flocks and herds,—such as the Hottentot and Caffre of South Africa, who are also already, at least were, balanced in number to the means of their pastoral subsistence. These, when encroached upon by and forced to retreat before the fire-armed European, have not space left for the support of their herds. They are driven by necessity to trespass in search of pasture upon their neighbour’s territory, and exterminating war is the result. On the other hand, the New Zealanders, in a country, although so rich in vegetation, almost destitute of game, and without herds of any kind, have been accustomed to raise their food, with the exception of fish, by agricultural labour (either by digging for roots, or digging to produce roots); and, instead of being peopled up to the means of subsistence obtainable by agriculture, do not reach the one-hundredth part, their numbers having been kept down apparently by their ferocity and by anarchy. The entrance of Europeans in a friendly manner (such as is here proposed) affording them protection to person and property, domestic animals, better implements of husbandry, more valuable fruit-bearing trees and edible plants, all the advantages and comforts of civilization, which tend so much to the increase of population, and which they, from their character and previous habits, appear capable of receiving and benefiting by, must, instead of operating to their injury or destruction, prove to them the greatest blessing.
In the case of the scant-peopling hunter, the imperative necessity of an overflowing population, such as that of Britain, is a justifiable reason for breaking up his preserves. In the case of the pastoral people of South Africa, it is unjustifiable to invade their territory and disturb their quiet feeding herds, at least while any part of the world available for British emigration remains under the hunter occupancy. But in such an anomalous case as New Zealand, where a very scant agricultural population occupy a few straggling districts of an extensive country, with the exception of these petty districts, to them entirely useless, and which, from defects in the social order and other circumstances, they are not only totally unfitted for populating, but are even fast decreasing in numbers; and where a steady general government introduced by the emigrants would, in all probability, remedy the consuming evils under which the race is disappearing,—it is here, if we are at all to be guided by reason, humanity, justice,—it is surely here where we ought to locate our overflowing population. In the case of a region only inhabited by a few scattered barbarous tribes, totally incapable of instituting any responsible government, and where, in consequence, the country and adjacent sea are infested with lawless bands of robbers and pirates, any nation which possesses the power has a right to interfere, establish a government, and colonize,—surely much more so in the case of New Zealand by Britain than in the case of Florida by the United States.