Joel Polack, 5 Narrative of a Residence
Chapter 5: Narrative of a Residence
Polack left his family in London as a teenager in search of adventure. He returned at the age of 30 from the far side of the world as as wealthy successful businessman. He would have had in his luggage paintings, sketches and copious notes about the things he had learned and seen during his time in New Zealand. He gathered these in his book NEW ZEALAND: BEING A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES DURING A RESIDENCE IN THAT COUNTRY BETWEEN THE YEARS 1831 AND 1837. This was published by Richard Bentley and Sons, within a year of Polack’s return to England though some of the text suggests that it was written in a hurry, the narrative impulsive, with themes laboured and randomly repeated..
Richard Bentley was a renowned publishing firm, best remembered for Bentley’s Miscellany, edited by Charles Dickens, but it had also published a wide range of books of biography and travel, including Josiah Conder’s 30 volume Traveller’s Library covering the geography of many of the countries of the world, which sold well. There was clearly a market for books about exotic places. The timing of Polack’s book was propitious. The New Zealand Association was formed early in 1837 to colonise New Zealand along the lines of the ideas Wakefield outlined before the House of Commons Committee in 1836. Wakefield described New Zealand as “the fittest country in the world for colonisation” but expressed regret that it was being settled “in a most slovenly, scrambling and disgraceful manner”1. Polack wrote that among the objects of his book, he aimed “to open a new and unlimited mart for commercial enterprise; adding to the riches of the mother-country; affording an opportunity for the enterprise of her industrious citizens”.2 He also addressed the prevalent ideas about surplus population. He wanted ‘to furnish information of the existence of countries, whereby they may obtain for a redundant population an honourable footing, unlike the barbarous system of colonisation practised in former days.’ But as well as finding opportunities for colonisation by the redundant population of England, he expressed concern for the welfare of the indigenous people. “rescuing [them] from the darkest barbarism and revolting superstition [of the] most interesting race of uncivilised man; initiating them in the habits and comforts of social life, and changing their present decrescent state to a rapid increase of their now stunted population, their future comfort and security.”3
Frontispiece, New Zealand: A Narrative4
The book was published in two substantial volume. They were richly illustrated by Polack’s own meticulous fine drawings. In writing his book Polack had a work of encyclopedic scope in mind. He started with a review of the exploration of the Pacific and the discovery of New Zealand. The first chapters deals with the “Progress of Discovery” in the South Seas: De Balboa, Magalheans (sic), Sir Francis Drake, de Gonville, Juan Fernandez, then Hertoge, Le Maire, the two voyages of Abel Tasman, and the first voyage of Cook, de Surveille, Marion du Fresene and Crozet. Then he covers Cook’s second, third and fourth voyages, and the voyages of M. Duperrey, M. La Place, and Russian explorers, Krusenstern, Kotebuse, Billinghausen and Lutke. But Polack’s account is not merely a chronological survey of exploration. He dwells on lesser known stories and incidents within the records of explorers. He clearly had access to books about Pacific exploration5.
Having set the discovery of New Zealand by European explorers in its historical context, he wrote about his personal experiences. First he described his two journey from Hokianga to Kaipara, the main purpose of his first visit to New Zealand. He principally came to ascertain if the river, which was known to have several shifting bars at its entrance, had a channel of sufficient depth for the navigation of large vessels’6. Then he came to buy timber, spars for shipping and flax, dressed by natives. Sailing further up the river would have made make access to the source of of timber much more accessible. He was accompanied by ten young native young men. He took a great interest in them, as indeed they did in this European young man, a Rangatira no Uropi. He also established strong links with Puhi, one of the young men, whom he described as his servant, and who accompanied him on all his journeys, including two trips to Post Jackson. He probably learned Maori from Puhi. He had travelled all over the world and had obviously a flair for languages. He had a way of relating to people, shaking hands when appropriate, distributing modest gifts.
As he and his group of young men wandered on, he took great delight in the spectacular scenery. In describing the people he encountered, he had a detached, amused, outsider’s way of looking at them, but he did it with a sense of humour, prepared to put himself down and laugh at himself. His companions ‘amused themselves’ as they walked on the soft sand along the beach ‘by imitating his manner of walking exaggerating each step as much as was possible, and adding ludicrous imitations of many of their European friends they had left behind at Hokianga’. They were all young men full of a sense of fun.
He came across evidence of recent warfare, danger and massacre that he had no way of understanding, with no knowledge of Maori tribal history. ‘The insecurity felt by these people was [now] exhibited by [his] companions.7 He was shown a cemetery where the heads of the enemy that had been captured were placed on poles, in front of the house of the chief. He counted nine: there were three more placed on poles in front of the entrance-gate to this part of the village behind which was the cemetery. Tribal war, murder, was still part of life8. He saw people they encountered through European the eyes as primitive people, but when he saw the heads of captured enemies placed on poles, he noted the similar English custom some sixty years earlier, of displaying the heads of people, that Walpole (the Whig politician) saw as he went to the Tower of London, and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar, where he saw people making a trade by letting spy-glasses at a “halfpenny a look.”
He met the influential chief, ‘Parore9. As Polack noted, Parore was a useful contact , ‘his heart was set upon having commercial Europeans residing in his various settlements; that, unfortunately, his people had nothing to employ their thoughts or hands, after planting, but themes of war and renewing old grievances; but, if commerce was instituted among his tribe, they would be employed in working for articles that would prove most serviceable to them, by dressing the korari, or flax, felling timber, and planting provisions for other markets’.10 Polack, however, was as interested in describing the native dances, the dresses, the moko, the tattoos, not to mention the girls, as in business projects.
Polack described the the mutual benefits of interaction between natives and Europeans. ‘The old chief, [Kaka] … [said] that the term of his existence was very uncertain; that the tribes that inhabited the Waikato river had long since totally destroyed the people who inhabited the banks of Manukou and Kaipara; that the only safeguard he could have was in the Europeans, who would sell him ammunition to repel any invasion of his neighbours on his plantations, which would be more tenable as early as it was known [that] he possessed implements of self-defence; that the attention of his own people would, in consequence, be otherwise employed in scraping flax and dragging out spars.’11
After describing the history of the exploration of New Zealand by Europeans and his account of his adventurous journey form Hokianga to Kaipara, he proceeded to describe New Zealand, its land, its climate, flora and fauna. He had prospective settlers is mind as his readers, so he focused on things that might be of special interest to them. He noted the harbours in particular and land that might be suitable for agriculture. He mentioned the different characteristics of tribes, the creative fine arts of the people of the East Cape, and the skills in building large canoes of the people of Hawkes Bay. He also made reference to Capt. Herd and the New Zealand Association of 1825, that would have had special relevance twelve years later, when Polack’s book was published.12 In Wairere ‘river Captain Herd, in 1827, purchased a large tract of land, known to Europeans as Herd’s Point, for an association of gentlemen called the New Zealand Company. There are about one hundred Europeans settled at Hokianga,’ he noted ‘including the missionaries’. He also mentioned the influence of the wives of missionaries on native women.
Access to safe harbours being of paramount importance, Polack described the harbours along the entire coast of New Zealand form the top of the North Island to Stewart Island, many of which he would have visited in his travels. Then he proceeded to describe the climate, the soil and the botany of the land, and quoted Cook ‘ that, with moderate attention, every known European vegetable would thrive superior in this country to many others: his anticipations have since been realised’. ‘This bland and healthy temperature allows the agriculturalist as many crops of certain legumes as he may think proper to raise.’ He described the trees of the forests ‘the pine tribe command the principal attention, from their towering height, without a branch protruding to destroy these models of symmetry. In an extensive note in the Appendix he described the variety of trees and their usefulness. Writing about the puriri, ‘it is well adapted as blocks under houses, sleepers for wharfs, ground sills, timbers for the largest shipping, and any work in which durability and strength are required’. He wrote about the various fruits and vegetables and their cultivation in New Zealand. ‘The kumera (Convolvulus battata), or indigenous sweet potato, is accounted the most invaluable food possessed by the New Zealander.’
He was particularly interested in the birds of the country. He quoted the renowned English ornithologist’s, John Gould’s description of the kiwi ‘ the most curious specimen of ornithology in New Zealand. It is covered with a hairy feather, similar to the clothing of the cassowary; and, like the Rhea genus, is destitute of the accessary plume. The rumour of the existence of the Moa greatly interested Polack, and later was the cause of the jealousy of William Colenso, missionary, botanist and explorer, who thought that he was the first to learn about the Moa13 Polack also described the introduced domestic animals, pigs, dogs, rat, cats, cattle, horse, ass and mule, then wrote about the Crustacea, shells, crabs, amphibious animals, seals in particular, and the abundance of various fishes. He noted that ‘There are no serpents, or snakes, of any description’ he reassured his readers. His interest in natural history was encyclopedic and clearly he had read widely about the subject.
He wrote about the fascinating geology of the land, its volcanoes, craters but he also mentioned features that might be of commercial value, noting that ‘beside a vast quantity of iron ore and bituminous matter, a variety of minerals, … will amply repay future investigators for their researches’.
He tried to understand the mythological origin of the native people, the story of Maui fishing the North and South islands out of the sea, and he found parallels between the Tangi, people prostrating themselves in tears, with ‘the Chaldean ancestors of Abraham’ and quoted the prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed that ‘the day shall come when the scattered multitude of the Assyrians, in whatever part of the globe they may be found, shall recover the original exalted state of their forefathers, though their pristine rank be no longer remembered, even by antiquarian tradition, or a dream that has been’14. These frequent references to Old Testament Biblical accounts hint at Polack’s Jewish perspective.
He noted the songs and dances of the natives and, as a virile young man, he couldn’t ‘forego’ his comments on the women, who ‘would grace a page in the “Book of Beauty.” He wrote about family relationships, marriage bonds, and childrearing. Unlike some Europeans who settled in New Zealand and lived with Maoris, Polack’s stance was that of the outsider and sympathetic careful observer. He addressed such an uncomfortable subject as infanticide without a sense of judgement by a European. Writing about the practice of tattoing he quoted Leviticus “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor engrave any marks on you;” which he deemed a proof sufficient that this custom was among the abominations of the Asiatics, from whom these people [were] evidently descended’.15
The second volume’s frotispiece depicts the settlement of Kororareka, the European houses in the middle, a large building, possibly Polack’s house and warehouse, on the left corner, the numerous canoes and one European sailing ship in the bay. It depicts a hopeful view of a future settlement of Europeans and Maori living together peacefully with thriving commercial prospects.
Yet before such idylic life could be attained Polack addressed some of the issues that might worry his British readerts. ‘The existence of cannibalism among the New Zealanders, few persons will be disposed to doubt at the present day’. He wrote vivid detailed accounts of cannibalism of which he had probably heard, though not witnessesd. Accompanying these instances of cannnibalism he gave detailed descriptions of acts of treachery, quite acceptable to Maori custom. As to the reason for cannibalism Polack wrote that ‘they never forget an injury, or let slip an opportunity when they have it in their power to revenge it’.
The gory details of cannibalism clearly interested Polack and he assumed that it would be of interest to his British readers, but having disposed if this, Polack went on to detailed accounts of canoe construction, and their operation, the tools that were used their construction and their decoration. He then turned his atterntion to fishing and fishing nets. His descriptions are interspersed with personal anecdotes. He described the houses of the people, their different dwellings, the lay-out of villages.
He considered the damaging impact of Europeans on the Maori world. ‘Few actions have been accounted more reprehensible than that of introducing muskets, and ammunition among the New Zealanders’. Life in New Zealand was not without its great dangers. But he also noted the crimes committed by Europeans. He gave credit to missionaries, and in particular to Henry Williams for their attempts to mediate between warring parties and their attempts to avoid bloodshed. To understand these he described the concept of utu, revenge and retribution, even for injuries sustained in accidents caused by distant relatives.
He wrote about slavery as a feature of Maori society, but also noted that ‘Few people of the United Kingdom are aware how many hundreds of bond people there are in England at the present hour, whose bodies belong as surely to the service of the lord of the manor’16. He also noted that ‘masters of colonial trading vessels have, for the paltry interested consideration of a few tons of flax, done everything that villany could devise to aid these miserable savages, in destroying each other.17 and described the infamous role of Capt. Stewart, of the brig Elizabeth, who conveyed the powerful Chief of the Cook Straight and Kapiti region, ‘Rauparaha’ (sic) and his men to Banks Peninsula to slaughter their enemies and aided in the destruction of their village. With a note of cynicism Polack added that ‘the authorities in Port Jackson took notice of the crime, and the horrid details were sent home to the Colonial Secretary; it was received with the usual expression of English sympathy, regarded as monstrous and very shocking, and no more was said about it18.
Vivid accounts of Polack’s often life-threatening dangerous travels enliven the text. They also present a colourful picture of encounters between the native people and Europeans, full of misunderstanding, yet mutual curiosity. Issues and hostility were often resolved by missionaries. Polack gave credit to missionaries who taught the natives to read and write as well and taught them agriculture and trades, and particularly mentioned the role of the wives of missionaries in this. He also mentiond that among the early missionaries there were some quite unsuited for the vocation and did damage to the reputation of their mission.
Polack’s account might appear random, episodic, but this gives it an immediacy. An example of this was his description of the massacre of the crew and passengers of the Boyd19, a sensational incident in the early encounter between Maori and Europeans, something that occurred almost thirty years before Polack’s arrival, which for years gave New Zealand a reputation for savagery and cannibalism. Polack described the story not only dwelling on the treachery of the natives, but also with a measure of sympathy for the them for seeking utu, revenge for the mistreatment of the chief’s son, who was on board of the ship, and with a touch of feeling for small details, mentioned the two year old girl who survived, and when she saw her European rescuer called out for her “My mamma, my mamma.” When some time later they asked her “what the New Zealanders did to her mamma? she would draw her small hand across her throat, and with the most melancholy expression, added, “they afterwards cut her up, and ate her like victuals.” 20
Polack wrote about the Maori as it was a generation before his time in New Zealand. The sensational bloody incidents that he described occurred before his arrival in New Zealand, but which were still living memory among Maori, as well as European settlers and missionaries, and coloured the way New Zealand was perceived by Polack’s English readers. He dwelled, however not only on the savagery of the people, but also on their humane qualities. He wrote extensively about the story of Hongi Hika, whom he called E’Ongi, his conquests and ultimately, his influence on Maori society, but he also described E’Ongi’s care and respect for his blind wife, his urbane manners, his leadership qualities. Similarly, writing about other notable chiefs, he presented them not just as brutal savages, but also as human beings with pride, yet also with regrets.
E’Ongi’s death marked the end of an era. ‘Since his death, the warlike character of the northern natives has undergone a thorough change. No chief has now the power of gathering as many hundreds as E’Ongi could command. ‘The native quarrels to the northward at the present day, are happily of no importance; hostilities are smothered, and truces patched up that would have caused such irascible warriors as E’Ongi, Korokoro, Muriwai, Pomare, Tarra, Parra, and a host of similar kindred spirits to have expired with shame and vexation. This feeling is principally caused by the country becoming more Europeanized, if the term is admissible, as scarce a district is now inhabited by the natives, but one or more of the new comers are located.’21
As the country became ‘Europeanised’ the issue of land purchasing and land ownership became important. During his travels Polack was made to purchase some uninhabited land. It was a way of acquiring items of value Europeans had by natives, in exchange for something that in their view had no value, unused, uncultivated land gained trough conquest. Settlers, missionaries thus acquired vast tracts of land causing disputes among the natives as to who actually owned the land. Busby, the British Resident, with no support, was out of his depth trying to resolve these disputes.
Polack made an effort to understand Maori society and beliefs. He wrote about Maori religion, the concept of Atua, Maori gods, and how they were imagined. As he saw it, fear underlined their views of their gods. He compared these with Jewish and Greek concepts, the images of Balaam22 in the Jewish Bible or Charon in Greek mythology. He tried to capture the Maori view of Europeans: ‘ “Yes,” [a venerable sage said], “you have fine ships and fine things, but your country cannot equal New Zealand, or you would never have left your parents and relations, the village you were born in, the chief under whose command you were brought up, and the wai tapu of your ancestors. You are all slaves in this country, who have run away from your homes.” ‘Many pleasing questions were often discussed in these little conversazioni, which evinced the powerful intellect possessed by these rude people’23.
He was impressed by the the physical appearance of the people, especially the children of European fathers and Maori mothers. ‘A handsomer race does not exist, healthier and more muscular24, but he would have liked to turn them into Englishmen, speaking English. The native language, he thought would become obsolete.
He extolled the fertility of the land, its potential to support agriculture, a useful source of produce. By the 1830s the intertribal warfare that some historians described as the ‘Musket Wars’ was, apart from some exceptional incidents, largely over. A few Europeans living in isolation, were scattered over much of the land. The idea of colonization was aggressively pursued in England. The protection of the native inhabitants was pitched against commercial possibilities. ‘Many statements have been put forth by persons averse to the colonization of New Zealand; the principal of these dogmatists insist, if the European once establishes himself in the country, the native population will wholly disappear in a few years25. However, Polack believed ‘that … knowing the tenacious character of the people, ever felt the slightest fear of their welfare being affected by colonization being introduced in the liberal views by which the parliamentary proceedings are at the present day so justly distinguished26. He was also aware of the devastating wars in Europe barely thirty years before and its impact on food supplies. In such an event ‘the occupation of New Zealand, as a colony, is of primary importance to the British Government, in a political point of view. In the event of a rupture taking place with the most northern power of Europe, at such a period, the real value of the indigenous staples of the country would be apparent27.
‘New Zealand, once systematically colonized, Polack believed, will be regarded in a very few years by Great Britain, among the first in value of her colonies’. And ‘great impulse that will be given to our manufacturers at home, the employment that will be afforded to thousands of the poor and honest classes of our own industrious countrymen’ 28 Always an entrepreneur, he saw that ‘The colonization of New Zealand will be the signal for the innumerable islands in the vast south Pacific ocean, to rise; which they must do, in value and importance, teeming as they now do, with valuable indigenous productions, in an uncultivated state, such as the sugar cane, ginger, turmeric, indigo, and other staple articles of consumption, that require but the pruning hand of the European to render more valuable than those beautiful islands, that are likely within a very few years to fall to total decay, in the Caribbean sea.’ The time has now arrived’, as Polack saw it, ‘ for enlightened Europeans to teach New Zealanders (i.e. Maoris) to look for ‘present sustenance’, and, instead of fighting each other and ‘subjugating’ their fellow countrymen, to improve the country and gradually to learn from their more ‘civilized’ visitors. ‘No cultivated nation, in any quarter of the globe, have a more rooted passion for commercial pursuits than these people’. ‘ No uncivilized nation would sooner amalgamate with a superior people; let their lands, especially such as lie dormant to them, be fairly and justly purchased’. 29 ‘On the colonization of their country, many of the young men would be found exceedingly clever as apprentices to shipwrights, general carpenters, joiners, turners, blacksmiths, and other branches including all the mechanical and useful arts30.
Polack, the social outsider, was a strong advocate of colonisation, and in particular, colonisation by the British, just at a time when the Wakefield’s and their their political supporters were pressuring the British Government for exactly that.
1Patricia, 1989, Fatal Success’, A History of the NZ Company
2Polack, New Zealand, p. iv-v
3Polack, New Zealand, p. iv-pollack, New Zealand, p. iv-v
4The frontispiece of New Zealand; Being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures depicts a number of whales in the choppy sea of the sperm whale fishery off the North Cape of New Zealand, and whalers in whaleboats hunting them. One the whaleboats had come to grief, swamped by a whale. Harpoons protrude from the back of the whale in the foreground. The whales are pictured in the manner of the traditional representation of the Leviathan, but the whalers and whaleboats look realistic enough. Whaling was a very dangerous occupation. There is a lot of action, a lot of movement in the picture. New Zealand was known at the time as one of the richest whaling grounds in the world and Polack chose to capture this image as well as the notion of a far away land. In the far distance, on the horizon, there are rolling hills beneath turbulent clouds.
5 Tasman’s Journal, first published in 1694 and on Burney’s 3 volume Chronological History of Discoveries in the South Seas, regarded as the standard work on Europeans voyages of discovery in the Pacific Ocean between 1492 and 1764.
6Ibid , P.59
7These accounts are all verbatim from Polack Narrative, see http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document
8Polack Narrative, see http://www.enzb.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=187&page=0&action=null
9For an account of Parore see Parore Te Ara
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2p8/parore-te-awha
10Polack Narrative, P.80
11Polack Narrative P.121
12New Zealand Company, An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/new-zealand-company
13Colenso’s reference to Polack’s (Pollock in Colenso’s artcle), Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1875, on the Probable origin of the Maori Races. p.9 ff https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/imageserver/periodicals/P29pZD1UUFJTTloxODc1LTguMi40LjEuMSZnZXRwZGY9dHJ1ZQ==
14Polack, Narrative P.358
15Te Ara: Ideas about Māori origins, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ideas-about-maori-origins/page-2
16Polack, Manners V.2 P.106
17ibid. P. 113
18ibid. P. 114
19Boyd Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyd_massacre#cite_note-9
20Polack, Manners V.2 P.170
21ibid P. 190
22ibid P. 229
23ibid P. 236
24ibid P. 276
25ibid P. 327
26ibid P, 328
27ibid P, 359
28ibid P. 360
29Ibid P, 329–330
30Ibid P, 336
Chapter 6 House of Lords Enquiry into the state of New Zealand and the settlement of British subjects there
https://stevensedley3.medium.com/joel-polack-an-outsider-in-pre-colonial-new-zealand-513d20707eb8
