Traders and Settlers

There was some speculation about a "Scottish gentleman" who left Scotland in 1782 with 60 'peasants' to found a colony in Thames. It is probable that the Gentleman was Norman MacLEOD who went to India with a company of troops. 

Alternatively the story may have related to Thomas Fyshe PALMER a Scottish minister who was deported to Botany Bay for preaching universal suffrage and, in 1801, with a group of friends, bought a ship in Sydney, the Plumier and went to Thames to load spars. Eventually they went to Guam where the ship was seized.

The first non-missionary family to settle in NZ were the HANSEN family who arrived with the Missionaries in Rangihou, Bay of Islands in 1814. Captain Thomas HANSEN was the master of the Active  and he brought his wife Hannah (COATES) and son Thomas, aged 29, to NZ. His wife and son remained in NZ although in 1815 Thomas returned to Sydney and married Elizabeth TOLLIS and then again returned to NZ in 1816 and settled there.  

In 1826 two ships, the Rossana and the Lambton arrived with around 50 potential immigrants. This expedition was organised by the first NZ Company. However after spending almost a year in NZ and travelling the full length of the country with a number of stops the ships left NZ without establishing a settlement. Four of the settlers, Scottish, stopped at Hokianga and established a sawmilling operation. The main reason for not settling was said to relate to uncertainty at the time over safety due to restlessness among the Maori tribes. Reference: See "A Society of Gentleman". Names see list. 

Thomas POYNTON born circa 1810 in Ireland arrived in the Hokianga in 1828 and became a trader and merchant dealing in timber.  

From the 1830s a number of shore based whaling stations had been set up and the majority of the European population would have been involved in these operations.

Others were involved in the growing trade between NZ and Australia. (flax, timber) and in the fledging boat building business.

Baron Charles de THIERRY organised 93 settlers in Sydney to travel to Hokianga on the Nimrod in november 1837 to settle on his land. Most deserted this project shortly after arrival.

Larger scale organised immigration began under the auspices of the NZ Company in late 1839 with the arrival in Wellington of the first NZ Company ships followed by organised settlements in Nelson and New Plymouth. The NZ Company eventually sent out 6352 emigrants in 63 ships.

The first and only organised French settlement was established by the Nanto-Bordelaise Company with xx settlers arriving on the Comte de Paris in Akaroa in August 1840.

also see "Comte de Paris -  descendants group" website.

Trade

The first trade (other than whales and seals) was timber, mainly spars for ship masts. Trade in Flax for rope making and textiles grew and by the 1830’s potatoes and wheat were being sent to Australia to feed the increasing population there. The incoming goods to New Zealand included, blankets, axes, nails, iron goods, muskets and gunpowder.   

James and Daniel FARROW were the first flax traders to establish a trading base at Tauranga in 1829 and also in 1829 Phillip TAPSELL established a flax trading operation in Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty.

Industry

Ship Building. The first ship built in New Zealand was the Providence  a 65 t ship built in Dusky Sound in 1792 by the crew of the Brittania who had left men to collect seals and then had not returned for almost a year.

A schooner,  the Herald was built in 1825 at the Bay of Islands but unfortunately wrecked the next year on the bar to the Hokianga harbour.  

In 1826 a schooner, the Enterprise was built at Deptford, Hokianga followed in 1827 by the 200t Brig New Zealander and in 1830 the 400t Sir George Murray in 1830.

William COLENSO arrived 30^th December 1834 and established the first printing press in NZ. This was set up by the CMS. First printing 17 February 1835.

First brewery started 1835 at Kororareka by Joel Samuel POLACK.