The dogma of survival in early colonial New Zealand

In the first six years of formal colonial rule [from 1840 to 1846] the New Zealand governments cut their teeth on state bankruptcy, war, sometimes virulent settler opprobrium, and widespread Maori apathy. Living through this period, it must have felt like the colonial administration was bouncing from crisis to disaster. When Grey took up the reins to govern for the second half of the decade he had the appearance - and within a year, the reputation - of a colonial crusader. But to interpret this part of the decade - as others have been tempted to - as the time when the British imperial fist removed its velvet mitten in order to thump the country into shape requires a substantial misreading of events. Grey abhorred having to depend on force, and was not indifferent to its consequences for the country's teetering race relations. He kept his eyes focused on potential trouble spots, and was armed with extraordinary (though intermittently fallible) diplomatic instincts. Moreover, he was driven by the same basic urge that pulsed through the veins of his predecessors in the post: the need for British rule to endure in the colony - at any cost.

The real leverage behind this dogma was the fact that policy on New Zealand was being made primarily in New Zealand. All that the British Government could or would do was to give the occasional nudge in the right direction, and keep a fatherly watch over the shoulders of the colony's governors in the unlikely event that there was some excess requiring correction. There was never an imperial master plan to which the country's rulers had to conform; no grand design or iniquitous conspiracy to seize the nation and add it to the already flourishing collection of imperial dependencies that Britain seemed to be amassing. As far as overworked colonial officials in London were concerned, provided British law applied to its subjects (and if possible to Maori as well), then it would be satisfied that the 'New Zealand problem' had been resolved, and their attention could then revert to the demands of the Indian subcontinent, which was where the 'real' business and challenges in this period of Britain's imperial history lay.

- Paul Moon, The Newest Country in the World, Auckland, 2007, p.211-2. 

See also:
Blog: An enemy whose hostility was to be unabated, 1 March 2017
Blog: Wellington Anniversary Day 1850, 22 January 2015
Blog: Colenso's grave, 12 January 2015