Review: Isaac Featherston - 'Petatone'

Dr Isaac Featherston arrived in Whanganui-a-Tara, briefly Britannia and later Wellington in 1841. A TB sufferer, he had been lured by expectations of a better climate and Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s promises of an improved method of colonisation. Featherston, part of a wealthy Newcastle family, came as one of Wakefield’s capitalists who would buy land and then employ the labourers who accompanied them on the migrant ships to develop their investment.

In his previous work on the early history of Wellington, Empire City, author John Martin introduced us to Featherston. Now he explores Featherston’s part in our history in greater depth in this new book, Isaac Featherston - 'Petatone': A Colonial Life, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press.

As a doctor, Featherston had worked his passage as the ship’s ‘surgeon superintendent’ and the description of the voyage out is fascinating. The surgeon’s job gave him a degree of control over the lives of the passengers and this provided a basis for his later career as a politician serving as Superintendent of Wellington Province for 17 years and representing Whanganui and Wellington at a national level. He died in harness as New Zealand’s agent general in England.

The details of the political machinations of the period are covered as expertly as you would expect from an author who has been the parliamentary historian. The descriptions of the behaviour of the politicians involved sounds depressingly familiar although our more recent representatives are not as colourful. MPs don’t use their umbrellas to defend themselves from physical eviction from the House quite as often today.

At the heart of the book however is land; its acquisition, development, resale, conquest and relationships with the original owners. Te Ātiawa rangatira Hōniana Te Puni’s described Wakefield’s colonising Pākehā as arriving as tutua, commoners, and through money made from land becoming rangatira. And everyone wanted to become rangatira.

Featherston’s early experiences in land speculation were not positive. On arrival he discovered that the land bought before departure consisted of a large area of swamp in Wainuiomata. There were subsequent land acquisitions and then in 1862 he was appointed land purchase commissioner for Wellington and became involved on a much broader scale.

One major land deal with Māori, the Manawatū Purchase involving thousands of acres is described here at length and is central to Featherston’s work and legacy. Martin acknowledges that the purchase was ‘controversial then and now’ and notes that Featherston thought that the Māori who opposed the sale ‘were relatively few and did not have strong claims.’ Material prepared subsequently for the Waitangi Tribunal, however, states that Featherston was not dealing with the true owners and that the majority of the relevant iwi, Ngāti Kauwhata, were not consulted. In the modern narrative Featherston does not come out very well.

Featherston’s relationship with Māori was complex. He is mostly remembered today for a quote relating to his belief that Māori were doomed to extinction and that it was the duty of Pākehā to ‘smooth down the dying pillow of the Māori race.’ He did not speak te reo and unlike many of his contemporaries had not lived with Māori. Featherston says things that grate to the modern ear, for example, attributing the high death rates of Māori in part to their, ‘savage customs and habits’. Then, on a positive note, he is found arguing that the Suppression of Rebellion Act and New Zealand Settlements Act allowing confiscation of Māori land are wrong calling them ‘monstrous and unheard powers’. While Featherston’s dealings with Māori are found throughout this book their voice at times seems muted, drowned out by contemporary Pākehā versions of their world.

During all this Featherston’s family occasionally appears; his wife Bethia and eight daughters and four sons. However as a contemporary observed, 'home is not Featherston's centre'.

This book is a monumental work on an important part of our history. The chapters on the political manoeuvrings of the time are very detailed and I learned a great deal from them. However the sections relating to Māori and the wars especially made me want a deeper investigation of a contemporary Māori perspective.