Today in History

1853 Wakefield elected to Parliament

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the mastermind behind the New Zealand Company's organised settlement of New Zealand, first stepped foot in the country on 2 February 1853. This was almost 15 years after his brother and his son took part in the Company's initial expedition. Wakefield settled in Wellington where, after a brief foray into politics, he would see out the remainder of his life in relative isolation.

Shortly after his arrival in Wellington, Wakefield began to campaign in the Hutt for a seat in both the House of Representatives and the Wellington Provincial Council. In his opening address to the Hutt electorate he claimed to have been misrepresented and set about correcting those misapprehensions in a mammoth seven-hour meeting. He won support among the working classes with talk of a scheme that would see labourers bought to New Zealand by the Company compensated for its failed promises by way of free land grants. Within a fortnight he was endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming elections.

In his book on Edward Gibbon Wakefield's time in New Zealand, Peter Stuart remarked on Wakefield's ability to avoid being tarred with the blunders of the Company. Stuart noted that

where the Company had done good, he claimed credit for its operations; where it had caused suffering and hardship, he disassociated himself from it and headed the attack.

Wakefield was elected to both the House and the Provincial Council. The first session of the Provincial Council was held between October 1853 and February 1854. But Governor George Grey failed to call the General Assembly, for which Wakefield publicly criticised him. It was finally called by Grey's deputy, Lieutenant-Colonel Wynyard, to take place on 24 May 1854. At the first session Wakefield moved for the introduction of ministerial responsibility. His motion was passed with one member abstaining.

Following the third in a series of constituency meetings in the Hutt in December 1854 Wakefield came down with rheumatic fever. He resigned from the House and Provincial Council in 1855. He eventually recovered but seldom ventured out of his Kelburn house. He died on 16 May 1862.

Image: Edward Gibbon Wakefield