Author: Octavius Hadfield

Publisher:

Published: 1861

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13:

"... When fighting broke out at Taranaki Hadfield astonished the settlers and confounded the Government by publicly defending the validity of Wiremu Kingi's claim to the disputed land. With Selwyn, Abraham, Martin, and Swainson, he pressed for the re-examination of the Waitara purchase and the recall of Governor Browne. For many months Hadfield was, as he said himself, very nearly the most unpopular man in the colony. He was attacked in the press as a "pious firebrand" and accused of "something not very unlike treason". His own analysis of the Waitara dispute is cogently expressed in his letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, which was later published under the title of One of England's Little Wars; his replies to his critics are to be found in The Second Year of One of England's Little Wars and the transcript of his examination before the Bar of the House of Representatives. So great was the consternation caused by Hadfield's criticism of the Government that, on 14 August 1860, Parliament took the unusual step of summoning Hadfield and McLean, the Chief Land Purchaser, for judicial questioning. Hadfield stood for four hours before the Bar of the House and, relying solely on memory, answered the 89 carefully prepared written questions that were presented to him. No one in the House disproved his assertions, which were later fully vindicated when the Waitara purchase was studied afresh. It has been claimed of the period July 1861 - May 1863 that this was the last time when the policy of the country was modified by the voice of the Church of England ..." -- An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.