Joel Polack, 6. House of Lords Enquiry into the state of New Zealand and the settlement of British subjects there
Polack’s New Zealand; Being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures in the Country between 1831 and 1837 was well received. The London Courier and Evening Gazette wrote that ‘This work furnishes a very good idea of the present conditions of the capabilities of New Zealand, including its extent, production, harbours, rivers climate etc. Mr Polack made most advantageous use of his time and opportunities and had produced one of the most complete and interesting accounts of savage life and character that we ever have remember to have read.’1 The Spectator concurred. ‘With some reading, a good deal of practical knowledge, very quick and considerable powers of observation, as well as a slash of facetiousness, he has been able to make advantageous use of his opportunities, and has produced one of the most complete accounts of a half-savage country we have lately met with. Mr. Polack’s volumes will furnish a very good idea of the present condition and capability of these islands; including their extent, their productions, their harbours, rivers, climate, &c. They will also convey a living picture of the custom, manners, morals, and character of the natives; including their aptitude for civilization and amalgamating with European blood. And this is accomplished in despite of a little forced wit.2
After the appearance of his book, Polack was regarded in England as an authority on New Zealand. In 1838 he was invited to appear before the House of Lords Committee of Enquiry into the state of New Zealand and the settlement of British subject there. The scope of the Inquiry was wide ranging. There were eighteen witnesses. These included advocates of colonization, particularly supporters and officers of the New Zealand the Association, The Honourable Francis Baring, MP, Chairman of the Association Committee, George Samuel Evans, Member of the New Zealand Association, The Reverend Samuel Hinds, with strong views on colonization as a way of civilising the native savages, and Frederick Elliot, Agent General for Emigrants. There were various notable supporters of the work of the missionaries: The Reverend John Beecham, Secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, Danderson Coates, , John Flatt, William Albin Garratt, The Reverend Frederick Wilkinson, and John Liddiard Nicholas, a New South Wales run holder, who visited New Zealand with Samuel Marsden The others were ship’s captains, Charles Enderby, owner of ships of the South Sea Whaling Fishery, Capt. Robert Fitzroy of the Royal Navy, who was later Governor of New Zealand and some travellers who just passed though New Zealand, John Watkins and John Downing Tawell3, both surgeons, Octavius Brown, who made a brief contribution, and two businessmen, traders, both Jewish, Joseph Barrow Montefiore, described as a merchant trading in New Zealand, and Joel Polack, a Commercial Trader in New Zealand. Montefiore was part of a large mercantile family, Polack was an individual entrepreneur. The sole representative of the voice of New Zealand natives was Nayti, recorded as a New Zealander.
Polack’s advocacy of colonization angered its opponents. ‘It is impossible’ he said, ‘to prevent colonization; but it would be colonization of the worst kind, which must annihilate the people.’4 He had travelled widely, knew what happened to Australia’s First People and America’s natives, the people of the First Nations. Yet he said ‘if the English did not colonize the country, they [the natives] would not admit any other nation to colonize them.’5 His view on the prospect of the native tribes living in amity should civilization eradicate the superstitions of the natives was that ‘they [would] be annihilated before it [was] done; the only method [he could] think of [was] giving them employment and keeping them apart.
Three days after praising Polack’s book, the The London Courier and Evening Gazette published an extensive article on the proceedings of the Inquiry. According to that, ‘The interest at present taken by the British public in the affairs of the islands of New Zealand is likely to be mere transitory or temporary character. The country, is one but newly opened — its resources are but partially developed — while the vague accounts received from those who have explored it would lead us to believe, that, in point of fruitfulness and beauty, a land exists which may prove a perfect paradise, as well to the lover of the romantic as to the commercial speculator. … The publications now before us, however, is [not] likely to satisfy to any very great extent the very anxious curiosity with which the affairs of New Zealand arc regarded. … Mr. Polack sets out in his work by giving a most horrible account the savage and brutal practices of the New Zealanders. Infanticide and cannibalism he describes not within limits, or as an every day practice, but an occupation in which they delight, and of which they make boast. But, per contra, in another part he describes them as possessing power of acquisition as great, if not greater, than our own as eager to obtain religious instruction — willing to submit themselves to those whom they feel to be superior to themselves in intellect — as hospitable, though in some cases treacherous — as clever artisans, and willing and industrious farm-house servants. Now, in these conflicting statements there is much to reconcile, and the more so as it does not appear in the instances to which Mr. Polack refers, that religious or missionary influence has had any opportunity of exercising its power, neither indeed is that gentleman greatly inclined to overrate the extent of benefit arising therefrom. ‘6
The Times used the opportunity to criticize both colonization and ‘one of the most prominent witnesses in favour of the scheme’. The paper suggested that those taking part in the New Zealand Association’s scheme were mostly ‘victims of desperate fortunes or of distempered optimisms’. Polack came in for particular attention, as ‘a worthy and wandering off-shoot of the seed of Abraham’. He was described as a ‘retailer of ardent spirits for the sailors and fugitives’, and the paper also implied that his land dealings [whereby] he had bought five properties from Māori owners — were not entirely honest. ’7 The Times was ‘scandalized to find, according to another respectable deponent, that so crack a witness of colonisation is not to be believed “under any circumstances even upon his oath.”’ The ‘respectable witness’ was John Downing Tawell, about whom Polack wrote ‘This man, born at Peterhead, was a seaman before the mast of a whaling-ship, from which he absconded in the Bay of Islands, forfeiting his articles and wages. The Missionaries, seeing his wretched state among the natives, scarcely obtaining food or raiment, employed him … He then insidiously habited himself in the garb of religion, which his actions repeatedly falsified, and has fed the natural venom of an aspirant for the loaves and fishes, by turning even on his masters, who fostered, clothed, and relieved him in the years of his distress’.8
Goldman, in his History of Jews in New Zealand noted that at the Inquiry ‘An air of doubt as to Polack’s bona fides prevailed, and perhaps a little prejudice, although the Committee recognized that the length of Polack’s stay in New Zealand and his ability to speak the Maori tongue entitled him to speak with some authority.’ Goldman also picked up on the class differences and prejudices prevailing at the time. ‘The members of the Committee recognized the difference in standing between Montefiore and Polack, by according Montefiore the honorific “Esquire”. Polack earned only the title of “Mister”.9
Polack, addressing the inquiry, established his credential. He had lived in New Zealand for a period of time. ‘I resided in Hokianga about twelve months,’ he said, ‘afterwards in the Bay of Islands, about four years at a time; I was travelling in various parts also, during that period I went on an exploration in search of manageable ports for vessels, and was a long time among the natives and being among them I could listen to all their ideas of everything they had to say about the country; not belonging to a body of men they told me their thoughts without disguise, they are very particular on that head.’10 The natives dealing with the missionaries are with the whole body, as such missionaries cannot learn the character of the natives, and they do not know the character of the people among who they are; it is the traders, like myself and others, who can know them.
Early settlers, including missionaries, bought large tracts of land, and Polack himself was charged with land speculation, but his land ownership was insignificant compared with that of some of the missionary catechists and other settlers: Mr. James Kemp, Catechist, has purchased at least 5000 acres at Kirikidi and Wangaroa, Mr. James Davis, Catechist, has purchased at least 4000 acres at Waimate, adjoining the land of the Society. Mr. Davis has a farming establishment; buildings, sheep, cattle, and horses. He employs about twenty natives. Mr. James Shepperd, Catechist, is supposed to be (excepting Mr. Fairburn), the largest English land-owner in New Zealand. His property extends from Kirikidi nearly to the Hokianga forest, a distance of more than fifteen miles,Mr. Charles Baker, Catechist, has a large landed property at Wangaroa, Mr. George Clerk, Catechist, has purchased a large tract of land at Waimate, adjoining the Society’s land on the west side Mr. “William Fairburn, Catechist, owns small tracts of land at the Bay of Islands, adjoining the Mission station of Paihia. He has recently purchased a very extensive tract, supposed to extend for thirty miles in its greatest length, at Tamaka in the Frith of the Thames. 11
One of the issues the Inquiry addressed was the question of land ownership; who owned the land, what the natives understood when they sold land.
‘What was the nature of the transactions’ Polack was asked ‘by which you acquired the possession of the land.’
His reply shed light on what became a source of major misunderstanding between colonizers and the colonized and the cause of wars and much blood shedding.
‘The first piece I acquired’, Polack said, ‘I requested the Chief to sell it to me: the other pieces I bought the natives requested me to purchase, and at the same time they told me;
‘Now, remember you are going to get our land; this descended from our forefathers; do not not think to give us some mere trifle for it; give us that which we should have. See that stream so let your payment be; it goes into various creeks, and refreshes all the land about it, so must your payment refresh all concerned,’ Then again they would say, ‘The things that you give us are nothing like the value of the land. That will last for ever, but what will become of your blankets? They will become sick or dead by and by. What becomes of your tomahawks? They will all be sick and dead. Glass and iron are brittle, you are going to steal the land from us.’
‘Look at that tree;’ they said, ‘look at it, if one branch falls there will come another, it will remain to our children, but what will come to our children when these things are worn out12
Aware of the inevitable alienation of the land Polack noted that ‘I have written out to the different Chiefs of whom I have purchased land, stating that in the event of the place being colonized, I will allow them each year an amount of stipend and I hope that every other European will take the same method.’13
The European concept of land ownership was quite different. Land was something you could buy and sell, as the demand for land would increase, their value would increase, and fortunes could be made from this increase in the value of the land. Such thinking was the underlying attraction of the offerings of the New Zealand Company and at the very heart of the discussion of colonization.
Perhaps because Polack was a Jew, an outsider, his very ideas, which conflicted with those of the advocates of colonization and those of missionaries were called into question. He was asked about the number of Jews in New Zealand in his time. It was not clear whether they meant in the whole land of New Zealand, including sailors, sealers and whalers, among whom there might have been Jews not known to Polack, or just among the settlers, but he answered that
‘Of Jewish persuasion there are only four. The only person I am acquainted with is, as a friend, Mr. Montefiore.’
However, some of the natives he encountered might have been interested in his Jewish beliefs. He noted that: ‘There was a crusade among the natives … A religion sprung up called Papahuahua [Papahurihia]14. They have made their Sunday on Saturday … There was a quarrel between those who embraced the tenets of Wesleyans and those new lights.’15
The crux of the Inquiry was Colonization and its impact on the natives of the land. The question posed was: ‘How could colonization prevent wars between the natives?’
Polack’s answer was ‘By employing their minds and their bodies by Europeans settling between them, by Europeans taking up slaves as farm servants.’16 It was obviously a very European point of view, that saw the exploration of native labour as a benefit to colonizer and colonized alike. He had a very high opinion of the abilities of the natives. (See Narrative of Travels and Adventures, P. 323 ff)
Polack saw himself as an outsider in the colonial society, being both an asset and a liability. ‘A native looks to people who would give them most payment. What is a man who understands Greek or Latin or drawing or music or have superior manners? The native does not like him so well, but those who come nearest to themselves, have most influence. They take the native daughters and the native gets a payment for that concubinage; no respect for the missionaries creates an influence like this.’17
Polack saw himself as a man of letters, an artist, a traveller, an adventurer, and a trader, a businessman. Unlike the supporters of the missionaries, who were opposed to colonization, and the advocates of the New Zealand Association, who saw money making opportunities in the dispossession of the natives of their land, Polack saw the dangers of colonization, the threat to the indigenous people, but also saw the inevitable change that resulted from the encounter of two different cultures, values and understanding of the world.
1The London Courier and Evening Gazette, 15 August 1838
2 Spectator, article/4th-august-1838/18/mn-ocuactcs-new-zealand
3 For more on John Downing Tawell see footnote 8, below
4 Select Committee of the House of Lords: Colonization of New Zealand, P.87
5 Ibid P.90
6 ibid, 18 August 1838
7 Wolfe, R. (2007). A society of gentlemen : the untold story of the first New Zealand Company. Auckland, Penguin.
8 Polack, J. S. (1840). Manners and customs of the New Zealanders. London, James Madden. Yet John Downing Tawell is described in the House of Londs Inquiry as a Surgeon, who visited New Zealand more than two months to pass the time on the way to Sydney, his interest was that of a man of science. He became a Quaker. He returned to England where his wife died. He wanted to marry a wealthy Quaker widow, but, inconveneinetly, he had a mistress. He murdered her by giving her prussic acid. Caught, he was convicted and Hanged in 1845. (see: https://glebesociety.org.au/street/john-tawell-1784-1845/)
9 Goldman: The History of Jews in New Zealand, https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-GolHist-t1-body1-d6.html p. 44
10 Select Committee of the House of Lords: Colonization of New Zealand, P.81
111838 — Hinds, Samuel. The latest Official Documents relating to New Zealand — INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS, Footnote p.23
12 ibid
13 Select Committee of the House of Lords: Colonization of New Zealand, P.81
14 Te Ara: Papahurihia identified Māori as Jews, naming them Hūrai, people lost in their own lands. He established the Jewish sabbath (Saturday) as his day of worship. Papahurihia upheld the principle that underlies all subsequent Māori prophetic movements: the search for the recovery of Māori authority. He embellished Jewish traditions, restating God’s promise to recover Canaan, their lost land, found in the earliest missionary-translated texts and oral messages.
15 Select Committee of the House of Lords: Colonization of New Zealand, P.87
16Ibid, P. 81
17Ibid. P.87
