‘Of Red War and Little Else’: European Responses to Indigenous Violence in the Tasman World, c.1769-1850s Samuel Gordon Gardiner Ritchie A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Victoria University of Wellington 2013 ii iii For my Michelle and our Matilda Dylan arohanui, arohamai iv Abstract Europeans responded to indigenous internecine violence in a variety of ways in the Tasman world from first contact to the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury. Whereas extant historiography has previously addressed European responses to Māori and Aboriginal violence in geographic and temporal iso- lation, a comparison spanning time and space augments knowledge of these responses. Violence was not the only aspect of indigenous societies Europe- ans responded to, nor was indigenous violence the only justification for colonisation. However an investigation of the ways in which Europeans rep- resented and responded to indigenous violence enables a better understand- ing of the processes of the colonisation of the Tasman world. Indigenous internecine violence included cannibalism, infanticide, inter- gender violence, and inter-tribal warfare. Through a wide variety of Euro- pean observations of this violence, this thesis identifies an initial conceptu- alisation of both New Zealand Māori and Aboriginal peoples of Australia as violent, cannibal ‘savages’. This conceptualisation was used to justify both colonisation and the related evangelical and colonial administrative attempts to suppress indigenous violence, as internecine violence was deemed ‘un- civilised’, unchristian, and unacceptable. Europeans attempted to suppress indigenous violence as it was seen both as an impediment to colonisation and, relatedly, as an inhibitor to the ‘redemption’ of indigenous peoples. While indigenous violence was seen as a barrier to colonisation, however, it was also simultaneously used to promote colonisation. Thus the attempted suppression of indigenous violence developed into the European mobilisa- tion and utilisation of intra-Māori and intra-Aboriginal violence in the pro- motion of colonisation. The development of European responses to indigenous internecine violence – from conceptualisations, through attempted suppression, to utilisation – is here examined in a Tasman-world context, drawing upon the interactions between these varied responses. In tracing this development within a com- parative framework, both indigenous agency and a rejection of the histo- riographically persistent notions of a homogenous (and harmonious) Abo- riginal Australia and a homogenous Māori people during this time period are key threads. v Acknowledgments Firstly I must thank my supervisors, Professor James Belich and Professor Richard S. Hill. Without their encouragement, challenges, and advice this thesis would, in all likelihood, have never come to be, certainly not in the manner in which it has. I consider myself extremely privileged to have been supervised by two such excellent historians; however, I take full responsibil- ity for any faults which remain in my work. Other Stout Research Centre staff and residents, in particular director Profes- sor Lydia Wevers and former administrator Louise Grenside, also provided much-appreciated help and encouragement. I found the Stout a very intel- lectually stimulating environment in which to work and am grateful for the space made available for me there. Steven Loveridge shared an office with me, and Charlotte Bennett offered much encouragement from the office next door. I am also grateful to members of the Victoria University of Wellington His- tory Programme, in particular Dr. Adrian Muckle, who offered many useful suggestions during the final stages of drafting. My whānau, especially my parents, provided much encouragement and support. Knowing I was always welcome at my Whāingaroa tūrangawae- wae offered great comfort, and my time there was always rejuvenating. My brother Benjamin, with whom I first explored Perth, and who later hosted me on my second visit to Nyungar country (when we proved Marsden wrong at Margaret River), offered necessary distractions. To those who hosted me in Melbourne I am grateful: my cousin Megan Hig- son, whose secret FitzRoy bars and restaurants were a welcome break from the archives; and Rachel Standfield and Jason Groom, whose hospitality, other bars and restaurants, and discussions about history, race, and sport also offered a much-needed escape from reading nineteenth-century hand- writing. The Friday night Magpies kept me laughing. vi Various sources of funding enabled me to finance my study and to travel to Australian archives and conferences: a Victoria University of Wellington PhD Scholarship (2010-2012); a Victoria University of Wellington Postgradu- ate Students’ Association Travel Grant (2010); four Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grants to visit Perth (2010), Sydney (2010), and Melbourne (2011 and 2012); and a J.L. Stewart Postgraduate Scholarship (2010). The librarians and archivists of the Victoria University of Wellington library, the Alexander Turnbull Library, the Hocken Library, the Mitchell Library, the State Library of Victoria, and the Public Records Office of Victoria, pro- vided access to vital sources. I have many more people to thank and many more anecdotes about the pas- sage of this thesis from an idea into a reality to share, but, like F.E. Maning before me, I ‘must say very little more lest [t]he[y] get a peep at the ass’s ears under the philosopher’s cloak’. 1 Most importantly, however, I am ever- grateful to my wife Michelle, who held my hand when I was scared and whom I know will catch me should I fall. I love you. Sam Ritchie October 2012 1 Maning, 8 January 1883, cited in T.M. Hocken, ‘Introduction’, in F.E. Maning, Old New Zealand: a Tale of the Good Old Times [1863], Auckland:1930, p.xxvii Contents Abstract iv Acknowledgments v List of Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Section I: Violent, Cannibal ‘Savages’ Chapter One – ‘Confirmed cannibals’: the Conceptualisation of Aboriginal Violence 22 Chapter Two – ‘[A] most warlike people’: the Conceptualisation of Māori Violence 62 Section II: Bible & Sword Chapter Three – ‘[T]o encircle them in the arms of protection’: the Suppression of Aboriginal Violence 114 Chapter Four – ‘[S]words and spears into hooks and plough shares’: the Suppression of Māori Violence 165 Section III: Mutual Exploitation Chapter Five – ‘[H]orrible instruments of colonial law’: the Port Phillip Native Police and the Utilisation of Aboriginal Violence 222 Chapter Six – ‘[W]hose aid saved the colony’: Kūpapa, Māori Police, te Ātiawa feud, and the Utilisation of Māori Violence 268 Conclusion 316 Select Bibliography 323 viii List of Abbreviations ADB Australian Dictionary of Biography AH Aboriginal History AJHR Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives ATL Alexander Turnbull Library BPP British Parliamentary Papers (Irish University Press Series), Colonies, New Zealand CMS Church Missionary Society DNZB Dictionary of New Zealand Biography HL Hocken Library HRNZ Historical Records of New Zealand HRV2A Historical Records of Victoria, Volume 2A HRV2B Historical Records of Victoria, Volume 2B JAIGBI Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland JPH Journal of Pacific History JPS Journal of the Polynesian Society JRAHS Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society KJV King James Version LMS London Missionary Society NZJH New Zealand Journal of History NZSCSG New Zealand Spectator and Cook’s Strait Guardian PROV Public Records Office of Victoria SLV State Library of Victoria VHM Victorian Historical Magazine WMS Wesleyan Missionary Society 1 Introduction Arriving in Australia, Europeans encountered a strange new land. A land of trees on which the grey leaves stayed year-round and yet from which the bark shed regularly; of seemingly endless sky-blue sky. A land where tem- peratures were hot enough to make the mercury burst right out of the top of the thermometer,1 hot enough to cause expanses of explosive eucalyptus to sporadically burst into flames. Europeans arriving in Aotearoa/New Zea- land also encountered an unfamiliar landscape. Islands of rugged coastlines peppered with harbours; interiors of craggy volcanic mountains and dense subtropical bush. Amid unfamiliar landscapes, weather, flora, and fauna, Europeans who travelled to the Antipodes also encountered strange new peoples. The short-title of this thesis draws upon Elsdon Best, who in his work on Tūhoe admitted: ‘I tell of red war and little else’. By way of explanation, the ethnographer asserted that he wrote of Māori violence because ‘that is all of their history that has been preserved by the neolithic Maori’.2 James Belich notes that both the increased Māori warfare of the 1820s and the nature of history itself led to a prominence of war in the telling of Māori history, which in turn caused an exaggeration of the level of pre- and early-contact Māori violence.3 Best’s assertion is borrowed here then, not because it indicates the intensity of indigenous internecine violence, though an indigenous exaggera- tion of violence is an important part of the story of indigenous agency in European responses to Māori and Aboriginal violence. Rather, this is a his- tory ‘of red war and little else’ because indigenous violence so fascinated 1 As happened to Captain Charles Sturt while exploring the interior