Portal:New Zealand/Selected article/2
Captain William Hobson RN (26 September 1792 – 10 September 1842) was the first Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi.
In his Royal Navy career, he served in the Napoleonic wars and was involved in the suppression of piracy in the Caribbean. In 1836 he sailed HMS Rattlesnake to Australia where he spent several months surveying Port Phillip District (later Melbourne).
In 1837 he sailed to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in response to a request for help from James Busby, the British Resident, who felt threatened by wars between Māori tribes. He arrived on 26 May 1837 and helped to reduce the tensions. At the time, the British government recognised the sovereignty of the Māori people, as represented in the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand of October 1835, which had been organised by Busby. Hobson returned to England and was appointed Lieutenant Governor and British consul to New Zealand (confirmed on 13 August 1839). He was instructed to purchase land "by fair and equal contracts."
Hobson arrived back in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840 (which is celebrated today as Auckland Anniversary Day) with a small group of officials and almost immediately drafted the Treaty of Waitangi, together with his secretary James Freeman and Busby. After obtaining signatures at the Bay of Islands, he travelled to Waitemata Harbour to obtain more signatures and survey a suitable location for a new capital. In November 1840 the Queen signed a royal charter for New Zealand to become a Crown colony separate from New South Wales. Hobson was sworn in as Governor and Commander in Chief on 3 May 1841. (Full article...)