Family History 4.11

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The Dream that was Cornwallis Part 2

The ceremony at the founding of Auckland 1840

If it was a small town, a village or even a row of wooden houses the remaining 27 passengers hoped to see when they came to anchor off the long sandy beach at Puponga, they were sadly disappointed. Raupo huts were hastily being erected by local Maori on the bare and unsurveyed land. Indeed there was dispute, even, as to their right to occupy the sections for which they had paid and of which they expected to take possession. The Company had yet to prove its claim to the land purchased back in 1838 and this possession was still in dispute. On approach to the office of the Colonial Secretary it was agreed that the immigrants should be allowed to settle at Cornwallis on the express understanding that they occupy such land on sufferance only until the pleasure of the Secretary of State shall be known. If the claim were disallowed, those occupying the land by permission, would be allowed one month to remove their houses. To buy the title to land on the other side of the world, to

endure the hardships and suffering of a protracted sea voyage and to then be told that possession of your land hangs in the balance would be enough to cause many to collect their possessions and return home. But to those who came on the Brilliant, and perhaps because of the suffering they had already endured, this was one more challenge to overcome. They set to work with a spirit to lay out the township of Cornwallis as they had dreamed it would be, as they expected it and as they wanted it.

Two further vessels, the Osprey and the Louisa Campbell were sent by the Company to bring further emigrants to the Manukau. The Osprey, a three masted schooner under command of Captain Sedgwick, sailed to Auckland with general cargo and then to the Manukau where it unloaded a steam-powered sawmill to be erected by the tradesmen she had on board her. The Louisa Campbell, a barque under Captain Darby, sailed also to Auckland to land merchandise and then around to the Manukau with her passengers. Before these two vessels arrived, however, a tragedy was to further jolt the company from its idyll and create some major setbacks. On an errand of mercy to help Mrs Hamlin, the wife of the Missionary living at Orua Bay who had become ill, Captain William Cornwallis Symonds was drowned. As Dr Ellis was away, Captain Symonds obtained medical supplies and proceeded to Orua Bay in one of the ships boats. A sudden squall blew up which upset the boat and only one of the five men in her, a Maori oarsman, survived. Of the Company, Captain Symonds, James Adams and Mr McAlpine were drowned.

Following the tragedy Lachlan McLachlan took charge of the Company's affairs but his lack of local knowledge including of the circumstances and language of the local Maori, hampered progress of the settlement of the colony's affairs. Captain Theophilus Heale, former master of the New Zealand Company's ship, Aurora, was appointed agent for the Manukau Company. Captain Heale, however, was overseas at the time and the Brilliant immigrants were to battle on under their own steam without the comfortable assistance of one familiar with the people and conditions of this South Pacific land.

In July 1843 the mill, the only industry in Cornwallis and its chief source of employment, closed down. Thus the death knell of a brave, audacious, ambitious and, yes, even cheeky expedition was sounded. While many an optimistic opinion was held for Cornwallis in the early years, by 1843 opinions had changed and some scathing remarks were published. While some of the settlers did remain until the 1850's but in 1846 the Land Claims Commission awarded only one tenth of the original area to the Manukau Company because it was deemed that chief Apihai Te Kawau had not had rights to the land in the first place. The settlement all but folded. In 1855 Henry Sewell obtained power of attorney over land settlements at Cornwallis but following his untimely death the 1,927 acres remained unclaimed for almost 50 years. In 1903 it was bought by John Mitchell McLachlan, the son of Cornwallis settler Lachlan McLachlan, whose will directed that it become a public park. To commemorate this important event in the history of New Zealand a monument has been built on the highest point of the Puponga peninsula. This monument ...commemorates the attempt to found the settlement of Cornwallis, the arrival of the ships Brilliant, Osprey and Louisa Campbell in the Manukau Harbour, and the settlers who, after many setbacks were forced through no fault of their own, to abandon the township of Cornwallis.

What if the Company had confirmed its right to the land bought from Mrs Mitchell? What if the land had been properly prepared? What if Captain Symonds had not met with an untimely death? What if the Government had approved the original 19,000 acre claim? These and many other questions from the past will arise and, in all probability, will never be answered, but will serve to add intrigue, substance and import to the history of New Zealand. The settlers were, in the long run, treated rather well by the Government. For every £1 that they had invested in their claims at Manukau the Treasury issued them with scrip credit to the value of £4 with which they could take up land to the equivalent value elsewhere in the country.

Copyright Denise and Peter 2001