The Story of Dicky Barrett Part 3: The Quest For Land

The first two stories in this series told us Dicky Barrett sailed to New Zealand in 1828 with his good friend John Love. In Taranaki they traded flax and pigs for muskets. They took Maori wives, were given Maori names and helped defend Ngamotu's Otaka Pa against Te Wherowhero's warriors from the north.

In June 1832, Te Ati Awa, along with Barrett and Love set out on Te Heke Tama Te Uaua - the great trek south along the Te Whakaahurangi track. They knew the Waikato warriors would strike again.

This week's story tells of Dicky Barrett's return in 1839.

Rewind to 1839

Decide whether these things were really happening around this time. Just answer true or false and check your answers at the end of the story.

True or false? 

1. By 1839 ships are already bringing settlers to New Plymouth.

2. New Zealand is a rich land where fish, wild pigs and birds are easily hunted.

3. New Zealand's governor represents the Queen. He follows orders from the British Government.

4. Missionaries have been in New Zealand for some time and the bible has already been translated into Maori.

5. The demand for land is growing as many more immigrants arrive in New Zealand.

Answers at the bottom of the page.

Here come the settlers

By 1840 more new immigrants were arriving in New Zealand and the demand for land began to grow. Check out this graph and find out these things:

• Where did most of the immigrants come from?
• Which years were the peak years and why? (Peak years are the ones in which the most settlers arrived.)
• How many immigrants arrived during these peak years? (Click here for the exact numbers.)

Answers at the bottom of the page.

And where did they go?

Look here to find out where these new immigrants had settled by 1870.

• Which province has the highest number of English settlers?
• Which two provinces have the highest number of Scottish settlers?
• Westland had the most people from Ireland. Many of them were goldminers from the Victorian goldfields in Australia and they came for the West Coast goldrushes. Why do you think so many English immigrants had decided Taranaki was the place to live?

Answers at the bottom of the page.

What did they do?

Look here to find the most common occupation of New Zealand's new immigrants between 1841 and 1880.

Answers at the bottom of the page.

Word wise

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose the best meaning and then check your answers later as you read the story.

1. employed (a) working for or (b) helping out

2. negotiate (a) find or (b) arrange

3. sweat and tears (a) very hard work or (b) upsetting news

4. blackmail (a) bad news or (b) bribery

5. ramifications (a) all the details or (b) consequences

6. good humoured (a) friendly or (b) reliable

7. scavenged (a)steal or (b) stalk

8. thwart (a) hinder or (b)help

9. sympathetic (a) sad or (b) caring

10. scapegoat (a) unpopular person or (b) person easy to blame

Answers at the bottom of the page

Return to Ngamotu

Dicky Barrett left Ngamotu in 1832 and now he's returning. Look here for this week's story and read the first part, "Return to Ngamotu", to find out why he returned.

The land man

Edward  Jerningham Wakefield was the son of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the man behind many of New Zealand's immigration schemes in the late 1830s and 1840s. Look here to find out what most people, including his father thought about Edward Jerningham Wakefield.

Try this with a classmate. The story says that Barrett didn't always like the way Wakefield did business. From what you now know about Wakefield the land dealer, choose five words from the list below that you think could best describe him. Compare your five words with another pair.

adventurous, trustworthy, bold, hopeless, a risk taker, enterprising, inconsiderate, harebrained, dangerous, prosperous, successful, inconsiderate, greedy, trustworthy, foolhardy, thoughtless, a businessman.

More land, more land!

Read "A Paper War" and then match the characters from this part of the story to something they might have said.

The characters are: (a) Dicky Barrett (b) William White (c) The Maniopoto chiefs (d) Reverend Whiteley (e) Te Ati Awa leaders (f) Te Wharepouri.

And they might have said:

1. Te Ati Awa left their land and ran away from us. That makes us the owners of that Taranaki land to the south and it is our right to sell it to you for a good price.
2. It is better to sell your land and still live here safely with the Pakeha. The Waikato tribes will want revenge but they will not attack with Pakeha living among you.
3. I own all this land now. I purchased it from the legal owners who conquered all who lived here. Here is my deed and it is God's wish that I own all the land that you see on my deed of sale!
4. It is true that we walked from our land but that does not mean that it is not now ours. It always has been and it always will be though we will allow some Pakeha to live among us.
5. God's work cannot be done without a mission and my mission needs land. You must sell me the land so I can lead your people down God's pathways.
6. I thought the Pakeha would merely live among us and there would always be more of us than them. Now they live on land that they say is theirs and theirs alone and I see many more coming that will do the same. It is our land and it is up to us who lives on it.

When you have your three lists of items transfer them on to a Venn diagram like this. This diagram lets you show that some things were wanted by more than one group.

Tough times

The next two parts of the story show that times were tough, for everyone. Read through to "Debate over ownership begins".

It's 1841. What if you lived through these times but could see into the future? Imagine knowing then that:

• There would never be enough whales to make a really good living.
• A great many Pakeha settlers would come to Taranaki.
• Dairy farming would become a huge Taranaki industry.

You might be working in the whaling station, a very new settler or a member of Te Ati Awa. Decide with a classmate on a "business plan" that will most benefit your family's future. In other words what enterprising things could you have done then that would help your descendents today?

The land man rules!

By 1844 land claims were a sticky issue. Settlers were arriving expecting land and Te Ati Awa were saying, "hands off!" The British Government, decided to sort it out. Most government officials lived in Britain but they still thought they could do a good job. They turned Mr Spain the lawyer into a Commissioner Spain the land judge and sent him to Taranaki.

Read what happened in "Debate over ownership begins," and "The Verdict."

And the headlines read...

The headlines below summarise Commissioner's Spain's decisions.

"LAND LOST BY CONQUEST," SAYS SPAIN

 "TE ATI AWA CAN'T CLAIM"
 
LAND RIGHTS CONSIDERED ...BUT ONLY IF YOU LIVE ON THE LAND NOW
 
NO PERSON CAN CLAIM TWO PIECES OF LAND AT ONCE
 
SPAIN CLOSES COURT AND SAYS TE ATI AWA HAVE NO RIGHTS. "THEY DIDN'T PRESENT THEIR CASE VERY WELL," SAYS SPAIN
 
LAND DECISION: TE ATI AWA, ONE TENTH, SETTLERS NINE TENTHS

What if decisions like these were made now? Find a classmate and consider each of the headlines in turn as if you are now in the position Te Ati Awa was then. That is:

• You left your land and home and have now returned to find that people are living on it and claiming it as theirs.
• These new people say your home is theirs because you left.

Decide whether Commissioner Spain's rulings are "fair enough," or "unfair"

Compare your opinions with others.

The end of a legend

The last part of this story shows us what happened to Dicky Barrett. Read through to the end and see if this story writer believes Dicky was as popular in his last days in Taranaki as he was in his early days.

Rest in Peace Dicky Barrett

Now that you have read all three stories about one of Taranaki's most colourful characters, write a short epitaph that could have been inscribed on his gravestone.

An epitaph often begins, "Here lies the body of... and it goes on to give the reader an idea of the person lying below.

A descendant's story

John Honeyfield is a direct descendant of Dickie Barrett and you can find out what he thinks about his famous ancestor here.

Fast Forward

It's Waitangi Day on Sunday and the Queen's representative will be in Taranaki again. New Zealand's Governor General, Dame Silvia Cartwright will spend New Zealand's national day in New Plymouth and will be attending celebrations at Ngamotu beach.

A dawn ceremony at the beach will welcome in Waitangi Day and that will be followed by a free community breakfast. Activities from noon to 4pm include on stage entertainers, abseiling and waka ama tuition, an art and craft market, treaty education and children's activities. There's a hangi at 1pm and half the $2 charge goes to the Tsunami Appeal.

While Taranaki's Waitangi Day is one of celebration it's also a chance to recognize that treaty issues, even those from this week's story are still being worked through.

Try this quick quiz about the Treaty of Waitangi and then check your answers below.

True or false?

1. The very first Waitangi Day was 6 February 1840.
2. The first Waitangi Day was a meeting between Maori chiefs and the British Government- represented by a naval captain, William Hobson.
3. Chiefs representing every tribe in New Zealand attended.
4. The chiefs were asked to give up to the Queen the right to buy their land.
5. The Treaty said Maori would still own their land and property and they would get the same rights and privileges as British subjects.
6. All chiefs present agreed the Treaty was a good idea.
7. All chiefs present signed the treaty.
8. The English language version of the Treaty and the Maori language version both said exactly the same thing.
9. The Treaty was a carefully thought out document developed over a long period of time.
10. In 1830 about 300 Europeans lived in New Zealand. There were 2000 living here by the time the Treaty was signed many more on the way.

Answers at the bottom of the page.

Answers

Rewind

1. False. The first settler ship, the William Bryan arrived in 1841.

2. True.

3. True.

4. True.  In 1814 Samuel Marsden set up the first mission station in the Bay of Islands and the missionaries had real success when the Bible and their prayer books were translated into Maori.

5. True. More immigrants arrived every year and many were keen to farm land.

Click to go back to the questions.

Here come the settlers

1. 90% were from Britain and Ireland.
2. 1863 was a peak year because of the gold boom. Another peak year was 1874 because by then many immigrants received assisted passages. Daughters and sons of settlers for example, who were 12 years of age and upwards got to travel for free. Domestic servants could travel for free too, as long as they were single.
3. 45,730 immigrants arrived in 1863 and another 43,965 sailed here in 1874.

Click to go back to the questions.

And where did they go?

1. Taranaki
2. Southland and Otago
3. Many of Taranaki's English immigrants had worked on the land in their own country so they were keen to get land of their own and Taranaki was seen as a good place to farm. They looked with longing at the Maori who at that time held large areas of land.

Click to go back to the questions.

What did they do?

They were mostly involved in agriculture.

Click to go back to the questions.

Word Wise

1a, 2b, 3a, 4b, 5b, 6a, 7a, 8a, 9b, 10b

Click to go back to the questions.

More land, more land

(a) 2, (b) 3, (c) 1, (d) 5, (e) 4, (f) 6

Click to go back to the questions.

Treaty quiz answers

1.True

2. True

3. False. The Treaty was later taken around New Zealand to be signed by the chiefs of other tribes.

4. True

5. True. The Treaty promised:

• Settlers the right to stay in New Zealand
• The Maori people would continue to own their own lands, forests and fisheries for as long as they wished
• The Maori people would make their own decisions about their lands and the way they lived.
• A government would be set up so there would be peace and order for all.
• All things valuable to Maori would be protected.

6. False. Some spoke against the Treaty on the first Waitangi Day. They said they didn't trust the new government.

7. True,

8 False. The version in Maori used words to describe ideas that were not part of Maori culture.  An example is kawanatanga which was used to describe rule or sovereignty. A better word would have been mana, (power) because kawanatanga means governorship. The chiefs may not have signed if they had known what they were giving away.

9. False. The Treaty was written in a few days. William Hobson, his secretary and some missionaries made notes while James Busby the British resident tidied them up. The Treaty looked very official but it really didn't take that long to write.

10. True

Click to go back to the questions.