Colonial Despatches

Grey, Governor of New Zealand, to Earl Grey, 29 January 1851, reporting the development of several industrial schools for natives in New Zealand, and urging that they be opened to native children from the neighboring islands. Transcribed below.

Mr Merivale
As the Hudson's Bay Co have a copy of this Letter perhaps it will be sufficient to ask the Co what they intend to do in the matter of setting the Schools up, & paying the Missionary.

Draft, Colonial Office to Pelly, Hudson's Bay Company, 13 March 1852, asking to be informed of the company's intentions "with respect to the establishment of Schools and the necessary provision for a Missionary."

In reference to my despatch No 33 of the 22nd of March 1849, upon the subject of the manner in which lands were to be secured for the production of the agricultural supplies required for the support of the children to be educated at the Industrial Schools established in New Zealand for the civilization of the Native race, and in reference to your Lordship’s reply to that despatch of the number and date specified in the margin, by which on account of the great importance of the successful development of the proposed plan, authority was given to me if I found it requisite to do so, even to allot gratuitously lands for the support of such Institutions, I have now the honor to report—

2. That several large Institutions conducted respectively by the Church of England, the Wesleyan body, and the Roman Catholic Church are now in full and successful operation in New Zealand, and that grants for portions of land requisite for the growth and production of the necessaries of life required by the children, and for their training in agricultural pursuits have been issued gratuitously to these Institutions, conveying the lands in trust for the use and towards the maintenance of such schools so long as religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language are given to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat. Such grants being made in the names of the persons who are authorized by the Education Ordinance to exercise entire control and supervision over the Schools.

3. That these Institutions are founded in the first instance jointly by the Government and the religious bodies who conduct them, and each school is then supported by the religious body to which it belongs, by the produce of the land allotted to it, and for the first few years, until it becomes self supporting, by the Government.

4. The funds supplied by the religious bodies are chiefly derived from the large Missionary Societies in England, the lands granted to the Schools are also the property of the Crown, and the value which these lands are rapidly acquiring from cultivation and improvement is imparted to them by the children educated at such institutions, and by their teachers who are I think, in nearly all instances, paid and supported at the entire expense of the English Societies, and must be so for a considerable number of years. These Institutions which must shortly exercise so exclusive an influence should therefore be regarded as to some extent being not Colonial, but British property, which should be administered for the welfare of the entire empire.

5. I have on several occasions called your Lordship’s attention to the condition of the many Islands in the Pacific Ocean in the immediate neighbourhood of New Zealand, and have pointed out the absolute necessity for the protection of the interests of Christianity and civilization, as also for the protection of the interests of out commerce & shipping, that the inhabitants of these Islands should be converted and civilized, and that they should be encouraged to adopt out language, laws, & customs and to use such articles as we could advantageously supply them with, in exchange for the many commodities which these Islands produce.

6. Your Lordship is also aware that the Wesleyans and Roman Catholics have already extensive Missions in several of those Islands, and that the Colonial Church of England is about to establish Missions in other of the Islands, many of these are however so unhealthy, that English Missionaries cannot advantageously reside there during the entire year, and the Missionaries with whom I have consulted are anxious to remove the most promising children from those Islands, and to educate them in New Zealand, where they will be surrounded entirely by Christian associations, and where also they will be brought up in British customs and habits, with British tastes, and with a knowledge of the English language.

7. In order therefore to give every facility the development of a plan which I regard as essential to the interests of the Empire in this part of the world, I framed the grants of land for the support of the Industrial Schools now under consideration, in the enclosed form, in which it will be observed that I have inserted words which make these Institutions available for the education of poor and destitute persons being inhabitants of the Islands in the Pacific Ocean; the effect of which words will in fact be to make such Institutions a component part of that great system of Missions which the piety and benevolence of Great Britain has established throughout the Pacific, instead of confining the operation of them to New Zealand alone, and although such a proceeding undoubtedly vests considerable discretion in the hands of the Missionary bodies, I am sure from long experience of their proceeding that this may be safely done. As however the objects I have contemplated by the issue of these Grants is a very extensive one, embracing rather imperial interests than those which fall within my immediate jurisdiction as a Colonial Governor, I have thought it right to report that I have done for your Lordship’s information, in order that it should not meet with the approval of Her Majesty’s Government, no such Grants may be issued for the future.

8. In as far as the interests of the Colony in New Zealand are concerned, no valid objection to the issue of such Grants presents itself to me. For New Zealand would still enjoy the greater part of the benefit of these educational Institutions, whilst their establishment in this country would probably lead the Missionary Societies to continue their operations in New Zealand, and to lend this country their aid for a much longer period than they would otherwise do; and New Zealand itself being made the centre of education and civilization for a large number of Islands, and for the Missionary establishments, would, from the great [???] to its shores, which would spring from these causes, become in a great measure the metropolis for a considerable number of Islands, and would certainly enjoy our extensive influence and lucrative commerce.