CHAPTER 6

GOLD IN HAURAKI IN THE 1860s:
THE POLITICO-ECONOMIC DIMENSION

European Auckland and Maori Hauraki in the 1860s Auckland's pressure upon Hauraki

The 1860s were climacteric for the Hauraki people; over these years they moved into a new and damaging economic relationship with the European community. And though by 1870 the process of colonisation within the region was by no means complete, the Pakeha position within the Hauraki rohe had become immeasurably strengthened. This cannot be attributed to the land wars; in contrast to Waikato, a minority only of Hauraki took part. Nevertheless, the economic history of the Hauraki iwi demonstrates that the subordination of a non-western society can come about just as surely as by defeat in war if the resources of that people are appropriated to serve the economic purposes of a colonising society and government.

Yet to speak of a monolithic colony in the 1860s is to indulge in a fiction. Settlement in this era, Morrell has reminded us, was characterized by 'dispersion and diversity'.77 Better to speak of the 'six colonies' of New Zealand, or as one of the provincial superintendents (J.D. Ormond) worded it, 'a number of kingdoms without a common bond of union between them'. Auckland, perhaps more than any other province, stood apart. As an aspect of this uniqueness, we can note that to an unusual degree Auckland had a vested interest in having the resources of Hauraki-timber, gold and lands-at its disposal. That was why Auckland's policies reverberated through Hauraki lands.

Hardliners versus philo-Maoris, 1861-63

A revived interest in the potentialities of the Coromandel peninsula as a goldfield coincided with a hardening of settler opinion in Auckland on the race question.78 After hostilities broke out over Waitara in 186o, a small group, denounced by their opponents as 'philo-Maoris', stood for a continued search for conciliation with Maori. Prominent among them were C.O. Davis, George Graham, Bishop Selwyn and William Swanson. But the majority of settlers, and their numbers swelled as competition for land heightened, thought the time had come for a reckoning by armed force. This viewpoint was represented by the Southern Cross, whose proprietor privately believed that Maori in 'lawless rebellion' were 'revengeful, remorseless and

77 W.P. Morrell, The Provincial System in New Zealand, 1852-76, Christchurch, 1964, p. 11.

78 See e.g. Southern Cross, 3 April 1860, p. 3, col. 3.

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