Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Part II: Australia and New Zealand

11/30/2013

In Part II of our adventure with Edward Gibbon Wakefield we follow as he leaves prison, picks up his pen, and chases a new goal: Revolutionizing British systems of colonization. Did people listen to a convicted felon? Were his dreams of colonizing Australia and New Zealand successful? And which half of his life is better remembered today? Join us as we conclude his story.

Podcasters: Christine and Elizabeth

Further Reading

Edward R. Kittrell, ‘Wakefield's Scheme of Systematic Colonization and Classical Economics’ The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 32:1 (Jan 1973) pp. 87-111.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, The Founders of Canterbury: Being Letters from the Late Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the Late John Robert Godley and to the Other Well-Known Helpers in the Foundation of the Settlement of Canterbury in New Zealand, Ed. Edward Jerningham Wakefield, New Zealand: Stevens and Co., 1868.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, A View on the Art of Colonization, With Present Reference to the British Empire; In Letters Between a Statesman and a Colonist, Ontario: Batoche Books Limited, 2001.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Robert Gouger, A Letter from Sydney, the Principal Town of Australasia, London: Joseph Cross, 1829.

Related Content

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Part I: The Abduction

Music by Kevin MacLeod (www.incompetech.com)

An older Edward with his beloved dogs

An article calling to memorialize Edward Gibbon Wakefield from the October 21, 1908 edition of the Otago Witness, a bi-weekly New Zealand newspaper. (click to enlarge)

John Edmundson

12/26/2023 01:49:02 am

I really enjoyed listening to your podcast on EG Wakefield, and especially the way you didn't gloss over the sordid abductions. I think you were a bit generous with him in your summing up. He didn't create the NZ parliament. It was created by an Act of the British Parliament. He just ran for and won election to it.

Also, I think you end up seeing him through a lens of US history when you refer to his concern that the colonials be
supposedly respected. That was not a significant issue for New Zealnd, which to this day polls in favour of continuing to have the British Monarch as head of state (although that may change with Elizabeth II having died).

Wakefield was past master at inflating his role in any NZ Company successes and avoiding blame for its faults. He certainly didn't care a great deal for the settlers who arrived to find that no land at "sufficient price" had even been purchased by the company. He also at times bemoaned the poor quality of settlers.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Part II: Australia and New Zealand

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