Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/502

 Waka, Nene Tamati (formerly known as Te Nene), was a very influential chief of the Ngapubi tribe, and will always be remembered in the history of New Zealand as the friend of the white man. He lived at the Bay of Islands, which was the place first selected for irregular colonisation, and from the beginning gave the intruders a generous welcome. He used his influence with the Maoris to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. In after years, when Hoani Heke commenced hostilities against the settlers at Kororarika, the friendship of Tamati Waka was invaluable. In his old age he received a well-merited pension of £100 per annum from the British Government in recognition of his long and faithful service. In 1861 the Queen sent him a silver cup as a mark of her friendship; and in 1868 he had an interview with Sir at Waitangi. He lived to an extreme old age, and died at Russell (Kororarika) on August 4th, 1871, where his remains are interred under a modest monument erected at the public expense.

Wakefield, Edward, is the fifth son of the late (q.v.) and was born at Launceston, Tas., on May 22nd, 1845, being taken to England in his infancy. His father brought him to New Zealand in 1851, and he was afterwards for some time under the care of his uncle,, at Wellington. In 1855 he returned to England, and was educated at King's College, London. In 1863 he was back again in New Zealand and attached to the staff of the Nelson Examiner. Two years later he was appointed to a Civil Service clerkship, and in 1866 became private secretary to the Premier, Sir. He was subsequently confidential secretary to the New Zealand Cabinet, and held the post for four years. He was then in the Customs for a short period, but again connected himself with journalism, editing the Evening Press at Wellington with conspicuous ability. Mr. Wakefield was elected M.H.R. for Geraldine in Dec. 1875, and was re-elected in 1879. In 1880 he was chairman of the Royal Commission on Local Industries, and in the next year was defeated for Geraldine, and for Inanghua in 1883. In May 1884 he was returned for Selwyn, and again in the following July, unopposed. In the short-lived Government of August to Sept. 1884 he was Colonial Secretary. Shortly afterwards he left the colony, and has recently resided principally in America. He has published a work on the progress of New Zealand during the past fifty years.

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, the well-known promoter of colonisation and founder of the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand, was the eldest son of Edward Wakefield, of Burnham Hall, Essex, and was born in 1796, being educated for the Bar. In 1826 he became notorious by his abduction of a young heiress named Ellen Turner, whose father was High Sheriff of Cheshire, and whose fortune he coveted. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, and the marriage, which had been solemnised at Gretna Green, was dissolved by Act of Parliament. By indomitable persistency, and possession of great capacity, Mr. Wakefield managed to overlive the stigma of this disgraceful episode. He wrote copiously on constitutional subjects and those connected with the condition of the depressed classes of society. He was deeply interested in the question of colonising the British dependencies, and wrote "Letters from Sydney," a work on Australian colonisation, so full of local colouring and data, that it was generally accepted as a genuine record of travel and experience. In 1833 was published his great work, "A View of the Art of Colonisation." In this book were broached the new theories of colonisation with which his name is indissolubly linked, and on the principles of which the great colonies of South Australia and New Zealand were subsequently founded. His main idea was the sale of the public lands at an upset price and the devotion of the proceeds to the promotion of industrial immigration. With the aid of Robert Rentoul, editor of the Spectator, and of Sir William Molesworth, he attacked the system of convict transportation, and struck it a mortal blow. He was private secretary to the Earl of Durham in his mission to Canada after the rebellion, and was mainly instrumental in establishing self-government in that dependency. Having taken a deep interest in the colonisation of New Zealand under the auspices of the New Zealand  486