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ABSTRACT
Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.
Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.
Archival Sources
Accounts and Papers – Native and half-caste in the South Island, correspondence with applicants for land, 1893, Archives New Zealand, Wellington (ANZW), (LE1 1893/153).
Agent for General Government, General Inwards Correspondence, ANZW, (AGG-HB 1/3).
Berghan Family, Old Land Claim, ANZW, (OLC1/71 OLC1363).
Case file: Addenda [John Lee, Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island], ANZW, (OLC1/72 OLC 8A and 17A).
Case file: Addenda [Joseph Crocome, Hawksbury (18A); Henry Wixon, Hawksbury (20A); Richard Sizemore, Hawksbury (20B)], ANZW, (OLC1/72 OLC 18A, 20A, 20B [REPRO 1705]).
Case file: Addenda [William Andrew Anglem, Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island], ANZW, (OLC1/72 OLC 19A).
Case file: James Spencer, Bluff Harbour, ANZW, (OLC1/18 OLC 426).
Case file: John Marmon, ANZW, (OLC1/317).
Civil Secretary, Register of Inwards Correspondence, ANZW, (CS2/1).
Correspondence regarding promises of land, ANZW, (LE 1/38 1863/116).
Henry Snowden, Old Land Claim, ANZW, (OLC1/1357).
Family of William Gundry, Old Land Claim, ANZW, (OLC1/1370 [REPRO 1548]).
Land Claims of South Island Half-Castes, Special File No.10, ANZW, (MA13/19 12b, part 2).
Land Claims of South Island Half-Castes, Special File No. 10, ANZW, (MA13/20 12e, part 5).
Land Claims of South Island Half-Castes, Special File No. 11, ANZW, (MA13/20 13a).
Land Claims of South Island Half-Castes, Special File No. 11, ANZW, (MA13/21 13c).
Miscellaneous Inwards Letters and Copies of Outwards Letters, ANZW, (G13/1 52).
Natives and Half-castes in the South Island – Correspondence regarding Land Grants, ANZW, (LE1 1893/153).
New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (NZPD).
Papers relating to the claims of the half-caste daughters of Rora Hauraki, ANZW, (LE1/147 1878/145).
Papers Relating to the Survey of Native Reserves in the Provinces of Otago and Southland, Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR), D-20, 1870.
Papers Relative to Half-Caste Claims in the South and Stewart Island, Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR), G-9, 1876.
Report of Board of Enquiry into Native Affairs with Sundry Papers, ANZW, (LE1/1890 1856/66).
Volume of papers relating to Native Reserves, especially the claims to half-caste natives in the South Island, ANZW, (MA-MT 6/15).
William Christie, Old Land Claim, ANZW, (OLC1/71 OLC1372).
William Coldicutt, Old Land Claim, ANZW, (OLC1/71 OLC1365).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. We use the term newcomer (rather than white or European) to signal that these traders and whalers came from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. We recognise, though, that the term ‘newcomer’ does not fully enscapsulate the fact that many of these men transitioned from traders to settlers and gained advantage from Crown policies and practices designed to advance settler colonialism.
2. See Paterson and Wanhalla (Citation2017, pp. 28–29).
3. Willoughby Shortland to Frederick Whittaker, 6 May 1842, OLC1/71 OLC1363.
4. Section 54 of the Land Claims Settlement Act 1856 explicitly empowered commissioners to inquire into land acquired by European men through marriage to Māori women.
5. Charles Marshall to Native Minister, 29 March 1878, LE1/147 1878/145.
6. John Marmon, evidence before Robert Fitzgerald, 13 September 1844, OLC1/317.
7. Raumati, evidence before Robert Fitzgerald, 13 September 1844, OLC1/317.
8. Te Uruti, Pata, Pero, Turoro, Te Retimana, Pairama Te Tihi, Te One, Pukerewa, Inu, and Te Raumahi, 17 March 1859 (original in Māori), OLC1/1370 [REPRO 1548]. Henry Snowden’s land was also claimed by Māori for his children: OLC1/1357. Māori relatives advised that William Christie’s children were gifted the land ‘forever’: OLC1/71 OLC1372.
9. William Coldicutt to F. D. Bell, 21 May 1859, OLC1/71 OLC1365.
10. Deed, 15 May 1859, OLC1/71 OLC1365.
11. Petition of Nathaniel Barrett, 15 January 1850, G13/1 52.
12. For a discussion of political debates about the care of ‘half-caste’ children and the legislative provision made for them, see Newman (Citation2007). The provision of institutional care by the state and religious bodies for Māori and mixed race children in the mid-nineteenth century has generated little scholarly attention and requires deeper investigation.
13. NZPD, Vol. 20 (1876), p. 454.
14. George Grey to Civil Secretary, 4 August 1853, CS2/1.
15. Alfred Domett, Land Claims Commissioner to Agent for the General Government, 22 March 1871, AGG-HB 1/3.
16. The first national census took place in 1871, but the ‘half-caste’ population was recorded inconsistently and often categorised on the basis of residence, dress, ability to speak English, and other cultural factors, alongside that of ‘race’. Additionally, the Māori census was completed on a different day, and not all communities were enumerated, sometimes because they refused to supply the requested information. It is difficult, therefore, to precisely quantify the size of the ‘half-caste’ population in nineteenth-century New Zealand or the extent of interracial marriage.
17. Evidence of Bishop Selwyn, LE1/1890 1856/66.
18. ‘Land for Half-Caste Children’, LE1/1890 1856/66.
19. Extract from the minutes of the Public Petitions Committee of the Legislative Council, 20 July 1869, MA13/20 13e, part 5.
20. Extract from the minutes of the Public Petitions Committee of the Legislative Council, 20 July 1869.
21. ‘Pre-emptive Right of Old Settlers’, LE1/1890 1856/66.
22. Evidence of Walter Mantell, Public Petitions Committee, 20 July 1869.
23. Petition of Andrew Thompson to the Legislative Council, MA13/20 12e, part 5. The request for 10 acres of land arose out of the promises made by Mantell when surveying the native reserves in completion of Kemp’s Deed when he was instructed, on Governor Grey’s approval, to offer no more than 10 acres per individual, or less if possible (Evison, Citation2006, p. 103).
24. Evidence of Walter Mantell, Public Petitions Committee, 20 July 1869.
25. Mantell to Colonial Secretary, 6 April 1854, LE 1/38 1863/116.
26. J. T. Thomson to Secretary for Crown Lands, 8 April 1869, OLC 18a, 20a, 20b, [REPRO 1705].
27. Evidence of Walter Mantell, Public Petitions Committee, 20 July 1869.
28. W.D.H. Baillie, Chairman of Public Petitions Committee, Report of the committee upon the Petition of Andrew Thompson, AJHR, D-20, 1870, p. 1.
29. See Mackay to the Under Secretary, Native Office, 5 September 1874, AJHR, G-9, 1876, p.1; List of Half-castes to be Provided with Land at or near the Neck, Stewart’s Island, AJHR, D-20, 1870, p. 6.
30. Stewart Island Land Grants Act 1873.
31. Mackay to W.H. Pearson, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Southland, 15 April 1874, MA-MT6/15.
32. Alexander Mackay to Under Secretary, Native Department, 19 September 1874, MA-MT6/15/15.
33. H.A. Atkinson, Land Claims Commissioner to Mackay, 23 December 1874, MA-MT6/15.
34. NZPD, Vol. 20 (1876), p. 454.
35. Andrew Sinclair, Colonial Secretary, to the Superintendent of Otago, 18 March 1856, MA13/20 13a.
36. Henry Wixon to Walter Mantell, 12 November 1862, OLC1/72 OLC 18A, 20A, 20B.
37. Report of the Commissioners appointed to Examine and Report upon Claims to Grants of Land in New Zealand, 4 February 1841, OLC1/18 OLC 426; Chief Commissioner of Land Claims to J.D. Bell, 22 May 1860, OLC1/7272 OLC 8A and 17A; Statement made by claimants (Anglem’s children and partners), OLC1/72 OLC 19A.
38. Mackay to H.A. Atkinson, 15 June 1875, MA-MT6/15.
39. John Arnett to MHR, 6 December 1879, MA13/19 12b, part 2.
40. Harriet Parker (nee Lloyd), James Lloyd, William Lloyd and James H. Parker to Minister of Native Affairs, 22 February 1886, MA13/21 13c.
41. Mary Ann Thompson Tandy to Native Minister, 9 January 1893, LE 1 1893/153.
42. John Conner (Tieke Kona) to A. J. Cadman, 30 December 1892, LE1/329 1893/153.
43. Mackay to Under Secretary of Native Affairs, 28 November 1878, MA 13/19 12b, part 2.
44. Letter from half-castes of the Bluff to Native Minister Ballance, 10 February 1886, MA13/21 13c.
45. George Howell and others to T. Pratt, 13 June 1893; William Spencer and others to Native Minister, 10 June 1893, LE 1 1893/153.
46. Letter from Nathaniel Bates, 25 April 1874, MA-MT 6/15; Application made by John Bragg Kaiporohu on behalf of his family, LE1 1893/153; James Wybrow, Toitoi, to Mr Maitland, 16 June 1882, MA 13/21 13d.
47. Elizabeth Parker to Mackay, 25 November 1878, MA-MT 6/15.
48. Thomas Gilroy, Bluff, to Mackay, 24 November 1878, MA-MT 6/15.
49. David Pratt to Mckay, 4 December 1878, MA-MT6/15.
50. Mary Davies to James Maitland, Commissioner of Crown Lands, 4 March 1879 and Henry [?] to Mackay, 26 April 1879, MA-MT6/15.
51. Thomas Gilroy to Mackay, 25 November 1878; and Thomas Gilroy to Mackay, 14 January 1879, MA-MT 6/15.
52. John Arnett to J.A. Menzies, Chief Commissioner, Native Department, 6 [month ill.] 1879, MA 13/19 12b, part 2.
53. Mackay to George Howell, 19 November 1878, MA-MT 6/15.
54. Letter from George Howell, 30 November 1878, MA-MT 6/15.