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Auckland

Auckland - now known as the city of sails - is both a city and a region. The region stretches from Wellsford in the north to the Bombay Hills to the south and has been inhabited since the first settlers arrived from east Polynesia in about 1000AD. Within this boundary there are 48 volcanic cones, 22 regional parks and 50 islands, all set against two magnificent harbours, the Waitemata and the Manukau. Auckland appears to have been a highly sought after area due to fertile land, as a result of its rich volcanic soil, and its two harbours provided plenty of food and safe anchorage. Auckland's original name was Tamaki-makau-rau, "the maiden contested by a hundred lovers", with 'Tamaki' meaning 'battle'. Tribes build Hill-top (forts) or pa, and the volcanic cones that are dotted all over Auckland became natural sites for these fortified Maori settlements. With plenty of food and space available life was peaceful until about 1600 when increasing populations began to compete for resources. By the time white men arrived, the area was densely populated. Seasonal battles between Maori tribes were common. However, by all accounts, casualties were light.

The British government was quite reluctant to claim New Zealand, in fact, from 1817, they pointedly and repeatedly refuted any claim to New Zealand because of "the internal anarchy in the land". This "anarchy" was both the increasingly bloody inter-tribal warfare. Fierce inter-tribal conflict in the 1820s led to there being little organized Maori resistance to European settlement. In the 1820, a Northland chief, Hongi Hika, launched a full scale revenge attack, with guns bought from the sale of British gifts, wiping out many of the Auckland tribes, then continuing into the Thames, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Opposing tribes had no defence against the gun and suffered heavy losses. After 1825, where perhaps 12,000 had lived, a few thousand survived. Even as late as 1839, what struck all visitors was how empty it was. No people, no houses, no fires, no canoes on the harbour, could be seen. Elsewhere in New Zealand similar battles were fought but within a decade most tribes had muskets and peace was restored. Increasingly the Maori turned to trade with the European as a living.

One other major disincentive to British government was the type of Europeans attracted to New Zealand. In 1830 there were on 330 Europeans in New Zealand, by 1839 there were 1000, whom the Presbyterian minister J.D Lang described as:

with a few honourable exceptions, it consists of the veriest refuse of society - of runaway sailors, of runaway convicts, of convicts who have served out their term of bondage ... of fraudulent debtors who have escaped from their creditors in Sydney or Hobart Town, and of needy adventures from the two colonies, almost equally unprincipled.

By 1839 it was generally known that the British crown would take control of New Zealand. The few "respectable" settlers and the missionaries had been demanding the imposition of British law to protect them from fellow Europeans while others, particularly the missionaries, were demanding protection for the Maori from land sharks and European "vice". Preparations were under way.

The first British Governor, Captain William Hobson, finally arrived in the Bay of Islands in January 1840. His first task was to sign a treaty with the Maori. In England changing attitudes had ended the days of gunboat diplomacy (as happened fifty years earlier in Australia with loss of many lives among the indigenous aborigines). And so they bought out the Ngati Whatua tribe (with a few trinkets) and signed The Treaty of Waitangi, which gave the Maori the same rights and protection as all British subjects in return for ceding sovereignty to the British crown. But what initially had the most impact was that the treaty, in order to protect Maori property rights, forbade sale of land to any but the Crown. Land already bought was subject to later tests in court. Hobson, chose Auckland as the capital. Hobson decided upon the name Auckland, in honour of his patron and former commander,

Lord Auckland (at that time, the viceroy of India). Many of the other place names in Auckland bear the influence of Hobson's patron. Lord Auckland's family name was Eden, and a great many parts of the city bear this name. On 18 September 1840, the British government first raised the flag in Auckland.

It was then the systematic European settlement began and by the end of 1840, the population had increased to 2,000. They were attracted by the mild climate, good farming land and the reports of the co-operation of the Maori. Most came from New South Wales which was suffering from a prolonged drought, low prices for wool and high prices for land.

Auckland was not a planned town like many of the southern settlements. It was established as a government town which meant many of the first arrivals were speculators, attracted by the profit from government supply contracts and the resale of land to later arrivals. This was very apparent when the first Crown land sales were held in April 1841. The presence of Sydney real estate agents drove the price up to £600 per acre, higher than Sydney or London. Few suburban and farming lots were sold. The economy was stimulated for a short time when the new landowners subdivided their sections and built houses to sell to new arrivals. However, because Auckland had no manufacturing industries and no reliable exports, she attracted no capital from overseas and was not an attractive option for prospective immigrants. The only other stimulus to the economy was from government spending but the British government kept Hobson short of money and told him to sell land to fund development - but he had no money to buy more land. In this period the government assisted only two shiploads of

Map Auckland - 1842

By the end of 1841 Auckland's urban population was 1,835. In 1843 it was 2,330, an increase of only 495 in twenty-four months. It crept up to 3,746 by 1846 (an average of 472 per year) but dropped back to 2,813 by 1848 when many left for the California gold fields.

That Auckland survived at all was largely due to the local Maori population. It was they who supplied the settlers with their food and bought goods in their shops. For the next fifteen years three quarters of all people getting their supplies from Auckland were Maori. Their income from food production, gum digging, timber and flax was spent in Auckland stores, while they could be hired for labour more cheaply than Europeans. One newspaper called them "our very life blood, the vital fluid".

In general, the Maori in Auckland, and indeed in most of the country, were very receptive to the new things Europeans could offer. Maori orchards and gardens very quickly extended far beyond their settlements. They built flourmills and bought ships to transport their produce. And they took to reading, writing and arithmetic with such a passion that their literacy and numeracy rates far surpassed that of the European population.

Auckland - 1842

In 1844 the Northland chief Hone Heke sacked Kororareka. The new Governor, George Grey, dealt quickly with this uprising, and others at Wanganui and Lower Hutt (land disputes), and peace was restored. The result however, was that overnight Auckland became a military town. Troops poured in from Australia, Point Britomart became Fort Britomart with new barracks and walls, and Fencibles (retired army and navy men from England) were settled in the outlying districts of Howick, Onehunga, Panmure and Otahuhu as a first line of defence. Grey's budget was increased substantially and the combined spending of the

By 1854 Auckland was finding it's feet. The export of food and timber to the gold rush areas of Australia and California and the expenditure of the military helped to restore the settler's confidence. Of a total New Zealand population of 130,000 (including Maori), 80,000 lived in the province of Auckland (comprising the upper half of the North Island).

By 1860 Auckland's population had grown to 7,989 in the town and suburbs, and 13,915 in the metropolitan area. But it still had the look of a frontier town; small wooden houses and shops lining narrow and muddy streets. However, by the end of the decade the modern city was starting to emerge. But first came the land wars and depression. Nationally, mutual interests had smoothed over areas of conflict between Maori and settler. However, this was the 19th century and all races were not equal. The number of settlers was rapidly increasing. The government wanted them settled. Their agents, charged with negotiating land sales with the Maori, used more and more dubious means to persuade the reluctant sellers and hostilities repeatedly erupted, the most serious for Auckland being the Waikato wars of 1863-64. For race relations in Auckland, this war was the last straw. The old relationship between the Maori and pakeha was permanently damaged

Lady Martin wrote:

"No invalids were brought to be nursed, no canoes heavily laden with produce skimmed across the harbour. It seemed as if the pleasant intercourse with the Maoris, which for twenty years had made our live so bright, was at an end."

Government House

She perhaps was writing in a simple straightforward way of herself and her bay, and even having, perhaps, only the war years in mind; but her words have encompassed more, and have now an almost elegiac tone. The old Auckland had passed away. But how the economy boomed! 10,000 soldiers arrived from Britain, 2,500 military settlers from Australia and Otago followed, all passing through the Auckland Barracks before heading south. Both harbours were choked with naval ships. Every able-bodied man in Auckland between the ages of 16 and 55 was on active service, many guarding the town's frontiers while others went to the front. The battle never reached Auckland and the final victory was bloody and inglorious. Afterwards, Auckland came down to earth with a bump!

The Imperial troops left New Zealand and Auckland lost its status as the Capital City to Wellington. The Government and civil service left town. To top it off, over the last few years major fires that destroyed many of the original wooden buildings: High St in 1858 destroyed 50 homes, Queen St in 1863 destroyed £60,000 worth of property, Queens St again in 1865, cost £15,000. Many homes were empty as the tenants returned to their farms after the war. Properties depreciated in value. There were many bankruptcies.

From 1867 to 1873 the gold rush had returned to Thames and Auckland profited: from the numbers of treasure seekers passing through Auckland and by the profits earned by some Auckland businessmen financing the expensive equipment needed to stamp the gold from the quartz. The economy boomed throughout the late 1870s and early 1880s. Auckland grew rapidly. The town now serviced a large percentage of the tens of thousands of new immigrants who poured into the region, including into the newly opened land of the Waikato. The town's physical appearance changed very quickly as the old wooden buildings were replaced by imposing stone structures. Reclamation work was finished to create a deep-water port and this doubled the size of flat land in the Queen St valley. The Liger Canel was finally

Waipapa Stream 1868

In 1886 the economic depression hit Auckland hard. Auckland had survived longer than the southern cities by living off the profits from the Thames gold. But that was now exhausted. Unemployment became widespread as children and woman competed with men for jobs paying far less than a living wage. The government offered very little relief work and always a long way from towns. 120,000 people left New Zealand for Australia and the United States (and they were the lucky ones who could afford the passage). Entire urban streets such as John St, Clarence St, Kingsland Ave and Eden Tce were empty of residents. It is impossible to exaggerate the widespread distress that existed at this time. It was the extreme hardships suffered that initiated the introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1898.

§ Historic Auckland
§ Auckland Museum
§ Auckland History
§ The Viaduct