Saint or Scoundrel 11

June 15th, 1863

I have spent much time trying to think of what I can say to Edward Wakefield’s son to convince him to support my book. I know that he is about three years older than I am, but I don’t really know
anything else about him. I am quite excited about the idea of communicating with him directly - rather than the very indirect letters from his father to my father. Here is a copy of the letter I
finally sent off after many revisions.

Dear Mr. Wakefield,

I know you will not know who it is that is writing to you. I have been given your address by your aunt, Catherine Torlesse, and she suggested you might be willing to correspond with me, to help me in
the book that I am attempting to write about your father.

I should say, first of all, that my father was a friend of your father's, and that they corresponded fairly frequently from the time of your father’s imprisonment, up till the time of my father’s death. Having read your father’s letters, I felt incumbent upon me the task of writing up the story of his life. Your aunt feels that others will also be doing this task - those much more capable of it than I. However, I want to pursue my goal, and in order to do so, I need someone to provide me with the details of what happened to your father from the time of the last letter he wrote to my father in 1844. I have to admit, ashamedly that he did write in 1845, but my sister sent the letter back, unopened, as our father had died by then.

I thought perhaps it would be useful if I could write specific questions for you to answer - rather than expecting you to sit down and write about 13 years of a man’s life. So if you are willing to
help me, this is what I need to know:

When did your father move to New Zealand, and what did he make of it when he got there?

Was he important in New Zealand - did he become an important man in his own right - rather than just be known for having organised some of the emigration? Your aunt said that streets and rivers were named after him, but I don’t know the details.

I know from having read the letters of my father that you were one of the first to settle in New Zealand, along with your Uncle William. It would be very interesting to me to know what it was like when you first got there, and whether you were pleased that you chose it as a place to live.

I will understand if you do not feel able to help me in my book.

Yours faithfully,

Margaret Forbes

Another letter from Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

December 10, 1834

Dear Daniel,

I have finally managed to get somewhere with my ideas on ideal
colonization. The South Australia Association has been founded, and
Parliament has passed an act for founding a colony and managing it
according to the principles that I have set down. Of course, they
cannot use my name to promote my ideas. It is amazing how long after
the event the problem of being in prison follows one. I have spent
time with a very famous person in my pursuit of my ideals - would you
believe the Duke of Wellington? In my book, England and America, I
described him as ‘ignorant and even illiterate.’ I am pleased
that he has forgiven me as he was the one who persuaded the
Parliament to pass the South Australia Colonisation Act. Now land
sales in Australia will finance the development of the area and
encourage the best qualities of British society in the way it is
colonized.

The colonists will fall into two groups; those who go as free settlers
and those who are to be labourers and whose passage will be paid for
from the sale of land. Those going will be men and women under the
age of thirty, and be of good character and of sound mind and body.

I am rather worried about my daughter Nina. I think I may have told you
before that she has suffered from a chest problem since way back in
1820 when she was only three years old and had whooping cough. She
has been urging all the family to emigrate to Australia, and I think
that country might serve her health better. My brothers Felix and his
family have already gone to Tasmania. William is also thinking
of going there, taking his daughter to try a new life. He has not had
the post-prison fortune that I have enjoyed.

Nina says she thinks Catharine’s husband should give up his ministry in
Suffolk and their family should emigrate too. She quotes my books to
all her friends and family - thinking it quite the perfect sort of
life for just about everyone. I think she feels that if the whole
family were to emigrate, it might convince me to go. Isn’t it odd
that for someone who has spent such a lot of his life arranging for
others to go to that country, I have not got the urge to go myself?
But perhaps I should not be selfish and do it for her sake and that
of a united family.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from your friend,

Edward Gibbon

October 5, 1863

Finally, a letter back from Edward Jerningham Wakefield. I knew it would take a long time as my letter must have taken at least two months to get there, and another two back after he has penned his reply. It is not quite as detailed as I would have liked, but at least he seems willing to tell me a few details about his father. My hands shook as I opened it, as if I were receiving a letter from a lover. I do hope he will continue to write to me.

August 1, 1863

Christchurch,
New Zealand

Dear Miss Forbes,

I received your letter, and had previously been informed by my Aunt
Catharine that you might be writing. I am pleased that someone is
interested in providing a legacy of my father’s life. Aunt
Catharine seems to think that all sorts of scholars are writing about
him, but if that is true, no one has contacted me. I should be the
one to write about him, but I find I cannot do it. I find it even
difficult to write these few words about him, so I fear I might not
be of much use to you.

You ask about my experiences in New Zealand. I sailed here arriving in
August, 1839. I acted as secretary to my uncle, Colonel William
Wakefield, who the leader of the Wellington settlement. I made a
number of independent journeys throughout the colony, and was the
Company's agent in the purchase of land at Wanganui and engaged in
trading with the Maori.

I did write a book once, Adventure in New Zealand, published by John
Murray, soon after my return to England, in 1845, but in fact it was
not so much me writing a book as such, but my letters to my father
about my experiences here which he made it into a book and had it
published in my name. I will ask my Aunt Catharine to send you a
copy, as it might no longer be easily available to buy. It will
answer your questions as to my early life here.

I would be very interested to read the letters that my father wrote to
your father. I was only a child in the time of his imprisonment, and
my memory of the time is somewhat faded. However, I do remember him
receiving letters from someone in Cheshire - and he made us learn all
of the major towns of the county, and included Disley among them.
Only much later did I realise how small and unimportant Disley really
is to Cheshire.

As far as when my father came to New Zealand, and his impression of it,
he came in March, 1853. He had already suffered quite severe medical
problems in England. He was thrilled with the climate, but soon
became bored by the politics and lack of mental stimulation. He often
told me how he wished he had never come. But by then, almost all of
his family were also here, so it became home to him in time. He
became an MP for Wellington, and spent most of his time in that city. He
didn’t like Christchurch, which is where I now live, and I was the
MP for Canterbury up until last year. As far as rivers and streets
being named after him, there are a few Wakefield Avenues scattered
here and there but I think that mostly happened in Australia. There
is a town called Wakefield in New Zealand but the residents firmly
deny any connection to my family. But there is a place near
Christchurch that definitely is named after us - Port Wakefield
township near Sumner.

I hope this will be of some interest to you. Do write to me again if
you think there is any more that I can tell you that might be on
interest for your book and best of luck with it.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Jerningham Wakefield (my friends call me Teddy)

This next letter from Edward Gibbon Wakefield is very sad. I know from other sources, that his daughter died on February 12th, only days after his letter was posted.

February 5, 1835

Dear Daniel,

I am writing this letter from Lisbon. We had to give up all hope of going to Australia. Last November, Nina’s health became so delicate that I knew a warmer climate was imperative, so I brought her here. They say she has consumption, but that her life might be prolonged by
the warm weather here. The doctors declare that her lungs are not incurably infected and the change may do wonders for her. I have hired a Portuguese peasant girl to care for her. She should have come here years ago, and I suppose my imprisonment and my selfish interests that I pursued over the years might have contributed to her ill health. I am very worried about her, as she is very thin and
pale. I will not be able to write about it if she should not survive. She has been my friend and partner in every thought and object of interest. I don’t think I could survive her loss as it is for her
alone that I have lived these past years.

Please remember us in your prayers.

Edward Gibbon