The New Zealand Company originated in London in 1837 as the New Zealand Association with the aim of promoting the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The association, and later the company, intended to follow the colonising principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. The New Zealand Company later established settlements at Wellington, Nelson, Whanganui and Dunedin and also became involved in the settling of New Plymouth and Christchurch. It reached the peak of efficiency about 1841, encountered financial problems from 1843 from which it never recovered, and wound up in 1858.
The company became notable for elaborate and grandiose advertising and for its vigorous attacks on those it perceived as its opponents – the British Colonial Office, successive governors of New Zealand, prominent missionary the Rev. Henry Williams and the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand and London. It stridently opposed the Treaty of Waitangi and was in turn frequently criticised by the Colonial Office and New Zealand Governors for its "trickery" and lies. The company also saw itself as a prospective quasi-government of New Zealand and in 1845 and 1846 proposed splitting the colony in two, along a line from Mokau in the west to Cape Kidnappers in the east – with the north reserved for Maori and missionaries, while the south would become a self-governing province, known as "New Victoria" and managed by the company for that purpose. Britain's Colonial Secretary rejected the proposal.
Read more about New Zealand Company: Early Attempts At Colonisation, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, The New Zealand Land Company, The 1839 Expedition and Land Purchases, The Treaty of Waitangi, The Settlement of Wellington, Nelson, Further Settlements, Financial Difficulties and Dissolution
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