Wellington’s first Pākehā arrivals: 1803-1839

Just who were the early European visitors and residents who made the region around Whanganui-a-Tara their home well before the arrival of the ‘official’ permanent settlers of Wellington in 1840? Rhys Richards will tell us about some of these early arrivals.

Who were the early European visitors of Whanganui-a-Tara
Explorers and sailors, sealers and whalers, flax traders and land speculators: just who were the early European visitors and residents who made the region around Whanganui-a-Tara their home well before the arrival of the ‘official’ permanent settlers of Wellington in 1840?

The nobs and snobs of the New Zealand Company sought to ignore all pākehā residents and visitors who were present before they began to replicate an ideal ‘English society’ in the new colony.

Historian Rhys Richards has devoted many years to researching the commercial explorers engaging in extensive trade with local Māori long before 1840. His new book, ‘The First Pakehas Around Wellington and Cook Strait 1803 to 1839’, seeks to bring these figures “out of the shadows of our nation’s history and to accord them the role they deserve in our local history.”

About the speaker
Rhys Richards, a former career diplomat, has lived and travelled extensively in Polynesia and Melanesia. Through Paremata Press he has been publishing his own books since 1986, while another eleven have been published elsewhere. Rhys was awarded the prestigious L.Byrne Waterman award, from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, ‘for Maritime History,’ in 2000.