(Continued from "Settlement")


1806
The first white settler, a New South Wales convict, George Bruce settled in the Bay of Islands and married the daughter of a Maori chief.
...later the f
irst white women to arrive were escaped convicts from New South Wales, Kathleen Hagerty and Charlotte Edgar.

1826  The first but unsuccessful British attempt at colonization.  Two shiploads of emigrants arrived.  Only a few remained to settle.  Many of the remainder went on to settle in New South Wales.

...
Port Nicholson (Wellington harbour) was discovered and charted by Capt. James Herd in the
Rosanna.  Captain Cook had missed the harbour leaving a gap in his chart between Palliser Bay and Cape Terawhiti.

1830 About 22 Whaling stations were established, most of them in the South Island.

1833   May.  James Busby arrived in the Bay of Islands as British Resident in New Zealand and

built a house on land he bought at Waitangi.

1834  March 20.  James Busy held a meeting with 26 principal chiefs in the Bay of Islands and officers of HMS Alligator to select as New Zealand flag.  Alternative designs had been sent by the N.S.W. administration.

1838 -1840 Land sharking reached a peak at this time.

1840 January 22.  The first settlers arrived to establish a settlement at Petone under the colonisation scheme organised by the New Zealand Co.
...20 February.  The Bengal Merchant arrived at Port Nicholson, the fourth ship to carry settlers, and the first to sail from Scotland.

1841  A settlement was established at New Plymouth

1842 Nelson, Motueka. The first New Zealand Company migrants to settle at Nelson arrived.    Another town was established at Motueka.

...1 February.  500 Scottish migrants - the first to arrive at the then

capital directly from Britain - landed at Auckland

1843 Manawatu. During the early 1840's a small settlement developed at Paiaka upstream from the mouth of the Manawatu River and a number of settlers established milling and trading activities.  The settlement shaken by an earthquake during 1855 was abandoned in favour of safer  ground in Foxton then known as Te Awaihou.

1844 The Otago block of 400,000 acres was bought by the Government.

1848 Dunedin.  Mar-April.  A group of 278 Scottish migrants settled at Dunedin to establish the settlement of Otago.  This was organised by the Otago Association, a company formed in Scotland in collaboration with the New Zealand Company to found a Free Church Presbyterian colony.

1849 Chief Land Purchase Commissioner Donald McLean bought the Rangitikei Block for the Government from the Maori.

1850 Christchurch and Lyttelton.  A settlement was established at Lyttelton and Christchurch by the Canterbury Association, founded in England in 1848 to organize a Church of England settlement in New Zealand.  This was the last colonization scheme in New Zealand to be influenced by Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

1851  Hawke's Bay. Donald McLean made extensive purchases of land in Hawke's Bay including the Ahuriri, Waipukurau and Mohaka blocks a total area of 252,000 ha.

1855  Invercargill. A whaler, James Kelly and his second wife, a widow, who had arrived in New Zealand on the Phillip Laing in 1848 as Mrs Niven were the first settlers in the Invercargill district, their "home in the bush" being about in the middle of present days Tay Street.  Mrs Kelly was an Aunt of Minnie Dean, the woman involved in the notorious Winton baby-farming murders.

1856  Invercargill  Governor Gore-Browne announced that the Government proposed to establish a town in Southland to be known as Invercargill.  A Port was started at the Bluff and in November the site for the new town was surveyed.  The first sale of town sections too place in 1857.
...
Timaru. Land was set aside by a Crown land agent for the establishment of Timaru.  In 1859 about 120 migrants arrived on board the Strathallan.  this was the beginning of organised settlement in South Canterbury.

1857 Marton. The first permanent European settler arrived in the Marton district in the Rangitikei.  He was G.F. Swainson.
...Foxton.  The Awahou block of 15,000 ha was bought by the government.  Following the move of settlers from Paiaka to Te Awahou, and subsequent colonisation the town was renamed Foxton and for quite a period became the hub of the region with eventual port and rail facilities.

1860  21 May.  James Mackay, assistant Native Secretary for the South Island bought the West Coast from the Poutini Ngaitahu for 300 pounds.
...Waipawa and Waipukurau.  Europeans began settling on land to the west of Hawke's Bay.  Two runholders F.S. Abbott and H.R. Russell established townships - Waipawa and Waipukurau on parts of their runs.
...
Havelock North was laid out and sections sold at a site on high ground overlooking the Heretaunga Plains.
...
Queenstown. Pastoral occupation of the area around Queenstown was begun by W.G. Rees who took up land on what was to be the site of the town.

1863 Military.  The Government began recruiting in Australia and elsewhere for military personnel to occupy land in settlements extending across the North Island from Raglan through the Waikato to Tauranga.  Partly to provide land for this scheme the General Assembly passed the New Zealand Settlements Act which authorised confiscation of Maori land.  Under this Act more than 400,000 ha were confiscated in the Waikato and Manukau districts of which 125,700 ha were eventually returned.

(Settlement continued)

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