We have heard more of the Quaker presence in New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century (Eye 11 July). It is a tragic tale of conflict with the original population around Nelson in which a young Quaker was killed. Meg Hill of Devon Area Meeting has the story.
'John Sylvanus Cotterell was a twenty-two-year-old surveyor from a Bristol Quaker family of long standing. He went to Sidcot School as did many of his relatives. Their family journals The Swallow have recently been given to Sidcot. I think that some of his letters home from New Zealand are reproduced in them.
'New Zealand was being opened up to white settlement in 1842 when Cotterell arrived in Nelson, on South Island. People had been promised farming land before they left Britain but little had been surveyed and allocated, so there was some urgency to proceed. Cotterell and his team explored the territory south of Nelson, and "discovered" the Tophouse Pass into the Wairau valley, and Lake Roto-Iti. They were probably already well known to the Maori inhabitants!
'As the surveying progressed in the Wairau, the Maori calmly pulled up the survey pegs each night in peaceful protest at what they foresaw would be the annexation by the whites of their tribal lands (justified by the government because the land was not being cultivated). They warned the survey team of the violent consequences of continuing the work. Finally, they burnt an empty temporary shelter used by the surveyors. The local magistrate, H A Thompson, arrived at the scene and attempted to arrest the Maori chief, Te Rauparaha, who had come to deal with the problem.
'Things got out of hand and firing began, probably by the men brought out by Thompson. A Maori woman was killed and then the slaughter began. Eventually, twenty-two people died, including Cotterell who, unarmed, seems to have tried to stop what was happening. Some were later tomahawked in retribution (utu) for the woman's death - she was a chief's wife.
'It seems strange that Cotterell was so unaware of the Maori's feelings. He had gone to New Zealand intending to learn the language and with a concern for the spiritual life of the Maori. He was interested in their religious observance, noting that "It is a matter of humiliation that these poor savages evince much more of Christianity by their meetings and lives than their Christian visitors".
'What he did not take account of was his observation that "the Maori are powerful in argument, quick in perception, obstinate in maintenance of supposed rights..."
'After his death, his little house in Nelson eventually became the first Friends Meeting House in New Zealand. It is now the site of "Quaker Acre".
'As an afterword, in the 1970s, a Cotterell descendant married Niwa, a descendant of the chief, Te Rauparaha. She is a lawyer specialising in Maori land rights.'

Labels: history, maori, new zealand