Robert FitzRoy

Subject: Robert FitzRoy Tue 27 Sep 2016, 21:29

Perhaps first a question to Caro about FitzRoy as governor of New Zealand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_FitzRoy

"Governor of New Zealand[edit]

The first Governor of New Zealand, Captain William Hobson, R.N., died in late 1842. The Church Missionary Society, which had a strong New Zealand presence, suggested FitzRoy as his successor and he was appointed by the government. He took up his new task in December 1843. On the journey to New Zealand, he met William John Warburton Hamilton and made him his private secretary.^[8]
His instructions were to maintain order and protect the Māori, while satisfying the land hunger of the settlers pouring into the country. He was given very few military resources. Government revenue, mainly from customs duties, was woefully inadequate for his responsibilities.
One of his first tasks was to enquire into the circumstances surrounding the Wairau Affray, in which there had been violent conflict between settlers and the Maori. He found the actions of the colonists to have been illegal and declined to take any action against Te Rauparaha. He did not have the troops to meet him on anything like equal terms. But, the New Zealand Company and the settlers felt betrayed and angry. He appointed a Government Superintendent for the area, to establish a ruling presence. Fitzroy also insisted that the New Zealand Company pay the Māori a realistic price for the land they claimed to have purchased. These moves made him very unpopular.
Land sales were a continuing vexatious issue. The settlers were eager to buy land and some Māori were willing to sell, but under the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi, land sales required the Government as an intermediary, and were thus extremely slow. FitzRoy changed the rules to allow settlers to purchase Māori land directly, subject to a duty of ten shillings per acre. But, land sales proved slower than expected.
To meet the financial shortfall, FitzRoy raised the customs duties, then replaced them with property and income taxes. All these expedients failed. Before long the Colony was faced with bankruptcy, and FitzRoy was forced to begin issuing promissory notes, paper money without backing.
Meanwhile, the Māori in the far North, around the Bay of Islands, who had been the first to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, were feeling increasingly sidelined and resentful of the changes that had taken place in New Zealand. To signal their resentment, Hone Heke cut down the flagpole at Kororareka. Rather than address the problems, FitzRoy had the flagpole re-erected. Hone Heke cut it down again, four times altogether; by the fourth occasion the First New Zealand War, sometimes called the Flagstaff War or the Northern War, was well under way.
FitzRoy quickly realized that he did not have the resources to bring about a quick end to the war. Meanwhile, the spokesmen for the New Zealand Company were active back in the United Kingdom, lobbying against FitzRoy's Governorship, which they presented to the House of Commons in a very poor light. As a result, he was shortly afterwards recalled and replaced by George Grey, then Governor of South Australia. Grey was given the backing and financial support that FitzRoy had needed but was denied."

I am reading the book already mentioned on this forum:
by Harry Thompson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Thompson
"This Thing of Darkness"
https://www.amazon.com/This-Thing-Darkness-Harry-Thompson/dp/0755302818

As I see from Wikipedia and comments on the book, the novel follows meticulously the reality or what is known from the reality. And as such I ask Caro, what she knows about the governorship of FitzRoy in New Zealand and if the wiki is completely right?

As an addition I will give further comments about the life of Robert FitzRoy

Kind regards, Paul.

Censura Posts : 1522 Join date : 2012-01-09

Hello Paul,

This is the backdrop to what are now called the New Zealand Wars, but earlier were known as the Maori Wars, then the Land Wars (which I personally think is the most accurate). Maori had originally welcomed Pakeha (Europeans) as a source of trade, and muskets, which they used to kill other tribes with. But after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, laying out the constitutional arrangements for the country in 3 succinct paragraphs, (and the source of controversy ever since, there being two versions, one in English, one in Maori, and the translations giving rise to disagreements), and Pakeha started to outnumber Maori and take their land, frictions arose. The main wars took place in the 1860s, but there were wars during the 1840s, too.

I think present-day thought is that the Wairau Affray was the settlers’ fault, but in earlier times, British settlers expected their governors to rule in their favour, and Fitzroy’s actions were not appreciated. The settlers had bought land at Wairau, which was disputed by another chief, and in the ensuing fracas, a musket was fired by one of the settlers and things got out of hand with 20 settlers killed by Maori. I read one book that said it might have been best if Fitzroy had confiscated the land at Wairau – arresting the Maori chief would have led to more attacks and pardoning them (as he did) meant they didn’t have respect for him. Te Rauparaha is still a name that NZers are very familiar with; most of the other Maori chiefs are only known to those with an interest in history or Maori issues. Wairau is at the top of the South Island (New Zealand has three main islands – the large South Island and North Island and the much smaller Stewart Island) and was the only place in the South Island which had armed clashes between Maori and Pakeha. Most Maori lived (and still live) in the North Island. There were clashes in the south between various groups of Maori.
Maori held land (and still do frequently) as a group; they didn’t have a concept of individual land ownership, and sometimes a chief would sell land when another chief would object. This led to conflict between settlers and Maori – the settlers having bought the land in good faith, and the Maori not wanting to be bought and sold.

I saw in one book Fitzroy described as “ineffectual”. The business with the flagpole has entered New Zealand folklore and did take place. Grey was anything but ineffectual. But that may have been because he was given the needed resources. Grey was also very interested in native affairs, having been strongly involved in Aboriginal interests in Australia.

There is always disagreement among historians and new interpretations about the historical issues in New Zealand.

Cheers, Caro.

Subject: Re: Robert FitzRoy Mon 03 Oct 2016, 21:56

Caro,

excuses for not answering earlier, but for one obscure reason I didn't receive an anouncement on my E-mail list as I received from all the other replies of the threads, where I contributed to. Don't know what happened...

And thank you very much for putting the whole event of Fitzroy's short governship in perspective...I understand now better the cirucmstances.

I now finished the mentioned book and as I now see it it was more about the life of captain Fitzroy than about Darwin, although Darwin is also frequently mentioned.
And in the author's postscript he says:
"As to Fitzroy's illness, his madness was almost certanly undiagnosed manic depression, undiagnosed becuase the condition was not yet identified.

And I have it already said or was it Nordmann on the great literature thread, that a book has many advantages above any other medium. For instance to emphasize this aspect: If one read a book, one can construct his own impressions and pictures from the written story...I for instance made of Captain Fitzroy a kind of Gregory Peck Wink

and was by seeing in Wikipedia the real picture of Fitzroy a bit disillusioned... Wink

We had here in Belgium the BBC series about the Beagle and with subtitles...I saw a part of an episode and although it was well made BBC quality I found it too long-winded...perhaps because I am, even at my age, always short of time...
If someone is interested here it is:

I skimmed the last hour through the seven parts, and although it was nearly all the same as I read in the book, including the Wilberforce-Huxley debate, which was on this forum mentioned in a thread by Tim of Aclea, where Nordmann and I participated too, and including the suicide of Fitzroy, I found the book much more convincing and intens and really enjoyed it, especially in the knowledge that it was so near to the real story. In his postscript the author says where he in some short histories made a fictional approach.

And reading the book I remembered the discussion on the BBC about the Social Darwinism of Darwin and some said to me that that was not true, when I said that Darwin was a man of his time...I think Nordmann objected too...here in the book of Harry Thompson the figure of Darwin is painted along the lines that I mentioned in the BBC time...
I will try to find the discussion again to start overhere in apart thread this controversy...I remember that I have show the text of Darwin where ity all was mentioned...and again if I recall it well, you didn't hear Nordmann anymore...

Yes and I strongly recommend the mentioned book...

Kind regards, Paul.

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Robert FitzRoy

"Governor of New Zealand[edit]

Robert FitzRoy

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