EL LOGRO DE LA MADUREZ PERSONAL

The discourse of paternalism is characterized by effusions of charity and compassion towards the native. Expressions of pleasure in the various accomplishments, gains, spectacles and advances of the Other are uttered. However, the ideological work of paternalism is in validating the New Zealand colonist’s disavowal of ill-intent by working to appease the colonial conscience of wrong-doing. The discourse of paternalism works to bring colonist and native into peaceful proximity and unity with each other. Texts that deploy this rhetorical strategy are characterised by a particularly fine observation of the desirable behaviours and characteristics of the native. Usually only certain natives or native groups are singled out for special notice, recognition and praise. This works to create scientific examples of ‘native made good’ and serves to assuage the concerns of the colonist that the colonization process has had a deleterious effect upon the colonized.

Paternalistic discourse, furthermore, works as an expression of hope and pleading for a future of unity and harmony in a racially undivided society where white Western capitalism reigns supreme and natives uncomplainingly assume their rightful place in the ‘correct’ social order. Paternalistic discourse might also forecast an eventual native demise and suggest how this has come about and what might arrest their probable extinction. The discourse of paternalism is suffused with contradiction and is intertwined with the discourses of discipline and sovereignty, where benefits to the natives are accrued upon their acquiescence to the British law, economies and social rules. It advocates a future devoid of conflict, struggle and complaint about the vagaries, excesses and blunders of New Zealand’s colonial incursion - while at the same time encapsulating a longing for a sterile but amusing past. The discourse of paternalism seeks to tell colonisers of the natives’ former pleasures and delights, where shining white faces thrill in the dark gesticulating bare bodies, glistening with sweat, and throbbing with exotic sounds and movements. Where the discourse of discipline seeks to describe the present and inculcate

trepidation for an anticipated crisis, the discourse of paternalism marches across time boldly proclaiming what was good then, what is lovely now, and what will be wonderful for the future. As Jackman in Branaman (2001) argues, in the final analysis paternalism works to “preserve an amicable relationship with subordinates … to pre-empt or subvert conflict” (p. 362).

The following articles have been selected from newspapers between 1839 and 1847 and have been identified as contributing to a discourse of paternalism. These texts work in concert to ascribe to the incursive activities of the Europeans, a mission, a civilizing purpose and a humanitarian fervour. Thus, they are appended to the more overt activities of appropriation, structural change, political reorganisation and the imposition of a capitalist economic base, in order to ease the relationship between coloniser and colonized and to assure the former that the deleterious consequences of their incursion can be subtracted from the overall good their presence affords.

In chapters four and five the background information for each article was condensed, providing some contextual information for the analytical sections. Because of the repeated appearance of articles addressing questions of land title, sovereignty and law, in the early press, it was necessary to pull these backgrounds together to demonstrate how they worked together over time to force the pressing questions for them into the public sphere. The following articles however, while working in concert to carve out, for the settler population, a sense of validity in their antipodean presence, are somewhat less synchronous. While the ‘Sovereignty’ articles agree upon the legitimacy of the colonial project, they do so from different starting points and arrive at a confluence upon the absolute necessity to override existing indigenous political, economic, and cultural systems and resources. The educators, philanthropists, the explorers and the missionaries, on the other hand, posit their rationales and their pursuits without the same level of tension demonstrated by those discussing the thornier questions of institutional power and control. Rather they propose initiatives and optimistically monitor the landscape for glimpses of progress and improvement catalysed through the colonists’ unselfish interest in the future of the natives. This they do without the need for interlocking conversations and debates.

Thus explorers, missionaries, philanthropists and educators disperse across the colony seeking joy, assurance, pleasure, and progress from the natives, pronouncing the intractable righteousness of their endeavours, and the vaulting triumph of the reformed savage. Reports of their exploits, musings or proposed initiatives are then reproduced in the settler press. Each of the articles will therefore by prefaced a background section so that the particularities of the respective contexts will be more easily identified.

The Papers and their Editors

The Southern Cross enjoyed the longest publication period (from 1843-1876) of the Auckland newspapers during the Crown Colony period (see Day, 1990, p. 10), while The

New Zealander ran for 22 years (from 1845-1866). Owned by William Brown, a prominent

businessman and political figure, the Southern Cross advocated strongly for the formation of a representative government. While antagonistic to the colonial administration on this point, Day (1990) nonetheless suggests that Samuel Martin, (editor of the Southern Cross) “and Fitzroy, enjoyed a good personal relationship and, importantly, the Maori policy of the Southern Cross, as advocated by the Wesleyan Martin, was closer than any other New Zealand newspaper to [Governor] Fitzroy’s own position” (p. 36).

Notwithstanding, the Southern Cross was later to become a vociferous adversary to the colonial administration, aligning itself squarely with the Radicals or Progress Party against the more conservative New Zealander. The New Zealander, begun in 1845 under the proprietorship of John Williamson, effectively operated as the mouthpiece for the Crown Colony Government under Governor George Grey (Day 1990, p. 37). Both were squarely in opposition to each other over matters of colonial administration.

Article One

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 6 September 1839, p. 3

LADIES PATRONESSES. The Countess of Durham. Lady Petre, Lady Molesworth. Hon. Mrs. Baring.

A Lady, the wife of one of the earliest members of the first colony intending to settle in New Zealand, has resolved on the establishment of an Infant School for the benefit of the children of the Aborigines, and of the poorer class of settlers. With this intention, she has purchased one of the preliminary sections of land which she gives as a perpetual endowment for this purpose, and has taken upon herself the responsibility of guaranteeing the salary for the first year of a master and mistress with their daughter as an assistant for whom she has likewise provided free passages, and accommodation on arriving in New Zealand. The teacher engaged is Mr Buchanan who during the last twenty years, has superintended the first institution of this kind established in England. It intended to place the contributions in the hands of three trustees leaving the management in the first instance to the lady who is the originator of the plan who subscribes the larger portion of the funds, and who proceeding to the colony with her husband, is willing to give up as much of her time as may be necessary for the personal superintendence of the school. The trustees will make themselves responsible for the due administration of the funds and detailed reports will be forwarded periodically to the subscribers in England.

Background17

The women listed as patronesses of the Infant School were all associated with the New Zealand Land Company through their husbands or sons and were known by the designation ‘The First Colony’. Qualification for membership on the committee of ‘The First Colony’ was the purchase of 500 acres including a town allotment (New Zealand Gazette and

Wellington Spectator, 21 August 1839, p. 6). The committee of The First Colony

comprised two men, Henry Petre and Francis Molesworth, whose mothers are published as being patronesses of the New Zealand Infant School. Reference to this Infant School reappeared in the Gazette throughout 1839 but appears for the last time in May 1840:

Arrangements are made for Churches, a Museum, and an Infant School, open alike to the native and foreign child. In a few months after the town surveys are completed, all the institutions belonging to a civilized community will, we trust, be in full operation, and in a flourishing condition. (New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 2 May 1840, p. 2)

It turns out that the would be ‘Master of the Infant School’ - James Buchanan - had left the ship at Cape Town having been convinced by family members there to apply his skills with ‘infant school work’ somewhat short of his original destination (May, 2003, p. 22).

On 21 November 1840 an article appeared in the Gazette indicating that The New Zealand Church Society who had formed “for the purpose of obtaining subscriptions to aid the Colonists of New Zealand in building a Church and establishing an Infant School, in which it was proposed to bring together the children of the colonists and of the natives” (New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 21 November 1840, p. 5), had run into difficulties (probably financial) and had to rethink their proposal. It appears also that the patronesses whose names were originally associated with the New Zealand Infant School were no longer involved in the project nor were they offering their sponsorship.

By 1841 the New Zealand Company directors in Port Nicholson and petitioned the Government for a grant for the establishment of a Mechanic’s Institute but this was declined by the Governor on 11 September 1841. On 10 May 1842, however, the Company’s ‘Committee of Management’ established the Port Nicholson Mechanics Institute, Public School and Library on Lambton Quay which was inaugurated with a lecture from Mr. Woodward whose discourse upon the difference between instruction and education:

…was listened to throughout with the most marked attention, the entire assembly "possessed so much" of the character of those we witness in the Mother Country that many, for a time, forgot that they were in New Zealand. (New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 14 May, 1842, p. 2)

Membership of the Mechanic’s Institute was by an annual subscription of five shillings per quarter and an entrance fee of two shillings and six pence to all public lectures. It was envisaged that, with the subscriptions to the Mechanics Institute, they might be able to subsidize a public school. By 1842 The Mechanics Institute boasted a membership of 160 and on the 6th June 1842 a school for the children of colonists was opened. By November 1842 the Gazette boasted that:

Viewing knowledge as power and essential to lasting prosperity, your Committee has devoted every energy to the education of the youth of this settlement. They have offered instruction of the most useful character at a price unheard of at home, much more in a new Colony. Youth of both sexes are admitted to receive instruction in reading, writing

arithmetic, and (geography, for sixpence and Latin and the physical sciences, additional for nine pence per week. There are at present in the school 41 boys and l2 girls at 6d. and 10 boys and 5 girls at 9d. per week. Your Committee are happy to state, that no complaints from parents regarding the progress made by their children have come to its knowledge; on the contrary, every one seems to approve and speak highly of the acquirements the children are obtaining. (New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, 23 November 1842, p. 2)

However, the original aspiration for a school for Aboriginal Children was placed on hold and was not taken up again by the New Zealand Company.

Surface Renderings

This article declares the intention of a number of women, associated through their spouses with the Port Nicholson colonists, to establish a school to educate natives and poor white children. The Countess of Durham appears to have purchased a block of land in Wellington which was to be used as a site for the proposed school. In addition she was to sponsor the salaries of a teaching couple for their first year as well as providing them with free passage to New Zealand. The Infant School’s trustees were to be responsible for the fiscal arrangements while ‘A Lady’ who devised the plan (and who is not specified but is in likelihood one of those mentioned above), will be responsible for the oversight of the school upon her arrival.

Patterns of Meaning

Constituting Moral Authority

In this article the native is positioned as a recipient of English charity. These ostensibly well-intentioned women resolved to provide for the Aborigine a school that would be benefit “the children of the Aborigines, and … the poorer class of settlers”. Their respective lack of association with New Zealand Aborigines seems not to have been of concern to the patronesses, suggesting that they were taking their cue as to this perceived expediency from elsewhere. In other colonies such as India, Australia and Canada, the British position regarding the education of the natives has haunting similarities. These patronesses do not use, as their reference point, the explicit needs of the native child to determine a course of action, but instead the native child becomes merely a site where their beneficence can be delivered. In an age where consciousness of the plight of the poor was high, culminating in 1835 in the Poor Law Act establishing workhouses for the destitute, the ‘humanity’ of the wealthy ruling classes was tested. There was also by this stage a

well-developed sense that the capricious and exploitative nature Britain’s empire building was responsible for the impecunious circumstances facing almost every indigenous group in every colony. Thus, the admission of such a scheme as part of the New Zealand Company’s colonizing project worked to assure all concerned and involved with Wakefield’s plan that their actions would have only favorable consequences for the native. Thus the resolution to establish an Infant School for the benefit of the children of the

Aborigines highlights the relationship between certain members of the British peerage and

the New Zealand Company. On the one hand the aristocracy could to be relieved of their ‘White Man’s Burden’ while the New Zealand Company enjoyed the public relations benefits that come from the patronage of these notable women.

Not only is the native effaced in this article by the largesse of the benefactresses, the native is also subordinated to a display of the patron’s financial importance and social station. The author valorizes the fiscal advantage of these philanthropists and is specific about expenditures. “A Lady” has not only “purchased one of the preliminary sections of land’, she has guaranteed the salary of a master and mistress, and has provided free passage and accommodation for them. Thus, in collocating the site of the native with such financial benevolence, a deficiency in the native is imagined so that the relationship between “the children of the Aborigines” and the patronesses is established as one of economic dependency. This presumptive move works to shape an association between the prosperous White and the one-dimensional native that celebrates white generosity over native need. In addition this discourse works by voiding the natives of a political economy and relocating them into a framework where flexible capital is available to only one color and one class which capriciously dispenses its capital upon projects which, its members are assured, might allow them to be understood as saviors and redeemers.

The natives are also initiated into an educational framework where their presence, while ostensibly central to the project, is at the same time obscured and mostly absent by virtue of the inflated purposes of their institutional leaders. The place of the Aborigine is obscured in deference to the more central place of the institution and the institutional directors. The patroness, the master and mistress, the trustees, superintendent, managers and subscribers are afforded clear designations that position them in terms of their