Porirua Harbour and Paremata Whaling Station in November 1843

Plate XII from Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Illustrations to “Adventure in New Zealand” (London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1845). Lithography by Day and Haghe. Other lithographs from the series can be viewed here.

Samuel Brees came to New Zealand as a principal surveyor to the New Zealand Company in 1842, and surveyed Karori Road and the hills surrounding Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington Harbour. In this vista an intrepid European horseman placed high in the foreground looks back on the scene. Below him in the left-hand foreground is Taupō Bay, the home of Te Rauparaha. It was from here that the chief was captured on 23 July 1846. Fearing that Te Rauparaha might lead an attack on Wellington, the new governor, Sir George Grey, had actually visited him earlier in the day at Taupō Pā. Two hours later, Grey sent his troops in to take Te Rauparaha by force and place him on board the Driver. The chief was held without charge for ten months on the naval vessel Calliope, then allowed to live in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland until a petition to the Governor resulted in his return to Ōtaki in 1848. Thereafter his influence diminished, possibly because of the humiliation of imprisonment.