The real father of Auckland?
Sir John Logan Campbell should be dethroned as the Father of Auckland to be replaced by the chief who invited the British to settle in the area, a historian says.
New Zealand’s first governor, William Hobson, established Auckland in 1840 and shifted the capital there from the Bay of Islands. He was invited to the southern shore of the Waitemata¯ Harbour by Nga¯ti Wha¯tua chief Apihai Te Kawau.
“I don’t like the term ‘founding father’ — for one thing it’s very patriarchal,” said historian Dr Vincent O’Malley.
“If you had to have one, I think Apihai Te Kawau has a far better case for that nomination for Auckland than . . . John Logan Campbell,” O’Malley told the Herald in an interview about tomorrow’s 40th anniversary of the end of the Bastion Point occupation.
However, another historian, Professor Emeritus Russell Stone, an expert on Campbell and Auck- land, dismissed O’Malley’s idea.
“I see no reason why, for reasons of political correctness, we should convert the Pa¯keha¯ father of Auckland into a Ma¯ori father of Auckland.”
O’Malley said, “Auckland is founded entirely on the generosity of Nga¯ti Wha¯tua and their vision for Ma¯ori and Pa¯keha¯ to live together side by side, for the mutual benefit of both parties.
“That was a vision that Apihai Te Kawau led.”
He noted that Hobson’s infant colonial government acquired the 1214ha for the original Auckland settlement for £341, and months later sold 18ha for about £24,000.
The enormous profits from that and other Crown sales of land acquired from Ma¯ori owners were used to subsidise development in Auckland and nationally. “So Nga¯ti Wha¯tua are really underwriting that in a big way,” O’Malley said.
Nga¯ti Wha¯tua ra¯keiO¯Trust Board member Sharon Hawke welcomed O’Malley’s suggestion about her ancestor Te Kawau.
“That would be great if we were to rewrite history. We’ve tried to do that ourselves. We unveiled a memorial just the other week on the Ports of Auckland frontage [beside Quay St].”
The memorial plaque acknowledges the September 1840 agreement between Te Kawau and the Crown and says, “Te Kawau gifted 3000 acres to establish the City of Auckland.” It replaces a plaque which mentioned a purchase rather than a gift.
The port company financed the new memorial — it refused to reveal the cost — and sought Nga¯ti Wha¯tua’s advice on the wording.
Hawke said the closest concept in English for what Te Kawau did was the “sharing of the land”.
But Stone said although Nga¯ti Wha¯tua held to an oral tradition that the land was gifted, no proof of that had been shown.
Stone said Te Kawau’s motives for inviting Hobson to Auckland would have included trade and protection from iwi to the north and southeast.
He said Campbell’s claim to the title of Father of Auckland included that he arrived before the settlement was founded, he was at the heart of the city’s growth for nearly 70 years, he was a political leader and he made generous donations to public causes.