Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 14, 2019 6:24:50 GMT 12
GOVERNOR WILLIAM HOBSON – NEW ZEALAND’S FORGOTTEN HERO
There can be no doubt that British Royal Navy captain William Hobson (26 September 1792 – 10 September 1842) is the founding father both of New Zealand as an independent sovereign nation and of Auckland as its greatest city. No other person has so singularly influenced the course of modern New Zealand history. Hobson stood for equal rights in law and public policy, including for the mid 19th century Maori inhabitants of New Zealand, as is demonstrated unequivocally in Clause 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi by the enlightened words, “the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England”. Yet in the 21st century Hobson seems to have become ungratefully forgotten by the very country that owes him so much. If he is remembered at all, it is as the British Crown representative at the first signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. Otherwise he has vanished into obscurity. This shameful neglect not only does Hobson’s memory a grave disservice, but is a slight on our common heritage as New Zealanders.
Born an Anglican Anglo-Irishman, Hobson was the first and final Lieutenant Governor (30 January 1840 – 2 May 1841) of New Zealand when it was part of the British Crown colony of New South Wales. Thereafter he served as the first Governor (3 May 1841 – 10 September 1842) of the newly segregated British Crown colony of New Zealand until his death from his second stroke in Auckland, 16 days short of his 50th birthday. Due to the colonial governmental transition that occurred under Hobson’s authority, New Zealand avoided remaining a dependency or becoming a state of Australia. Within less than three years until dying in office, Hobson so decisively established and entrenched the rule of British sovereignty and law all over New Zealand as a politically and administratively integrated territory that no other foreign power subsequently attempted to challenge this achievement. What Hobson first created in a remote British Crown colony was to evolve slowly into the independent sovereign state we are privileged to live in today......
Continue reading Michael Coote’s NZCPR guest column here > www.nzcpr.com/governor-william-hobson-new-zealands-forgotten-hero/
There can be no doubt that British Royal Navy captain William Hobson (26 September 1792 – 10 September 1842) is the founding father both of New Zealand as an independent sovereign nation and of Auckland as its greatest city. No other person has so singularly influenced the course of modern New Zealand history. Hobson stood for equal rights in law and public policy, including for the mid 19th century Maori inhabitants of New Zealand, as is demonstrated unequivocally in Clause 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi by the enlightened words, “the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England”. Yet in the 21st century Hobson seems to have become ungratefully forgotten by the very country that owes him so much. If he is remembered at all, it is as the British Crown representative at the first signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6 February 1840. Otherwise he has vanished into obscurity. This shameful neglect not only does Hobson’s memory a grave disservice, but is a slight on our common heritage as New Zealanders.
Born an Anglican Anglo-Irishman, Hobson was the first and final Lieutenant Governor (30 January 1840 – 2 May 1841) of New Zealand when it was part of the British Crown colony of New South Wales. Thereafter he served as the first Governor (3 May 1841 – 10 September 1842) of the newly segregated British Crown colony of New Zealand until his death from his second stroke in Auckland, 16 days short of his 50th birthday. Due to the colonial governmental transition that occurred under Hobson’s authority, New Zealand avoided remaining a dependency or becoming a state of Australia. Within less than three years until dying in office, Hobson so decisively established and entrenched the rule of British sovereignty and law all over New Zealand as a politically and administratively integrated territory that no other foreign power subsequently attempted to challenge this achievement. What Hobson first created in a remote British Crown colony was to evolve slowly into the independent sovereign state we are privileged to live in today......
Continue reading Michael Coote’s NZCPR guest column here > www.nzcpr.com/governor-william-hobson-new-zealands-forgotten-hero/