Book review

A sort of Conscience

At almost 600 pages this is a book for somebody who likes to settle in for  a good long read. Author Philip Temple, who is well known for his interest and knowledge of  New Zealand’s early history, has done a wonderful job with this one.

His explained the reason for his choosing this subject was that he thought historians’ had only focused on two members of the large and interesting family and he wished to correct the situation. 

The result is an extremely detailed book, well written and very interesting. In the foreward Philip Temple says that he had expected to take three years on the book, in the end it took eleven. Much of this obviously in a successful search for information. Often excessive minutae make history books heavy going and wondering if the editor had been asleep, this is not one of these, all that is written is relevant.

There is not much to admire in the men of the Wakefield family who seemed to be permanently be in some kind of trouble, fortunately the women were strong and held things together. Edward senior was described by a contemporary as ‘a failed farmer, a failed businessman, a failed father and a failed husband’ which just about sums him up. Edward Gibbon his son was not much better, he happily adhered to the principle that the ends justified the means.

The book well covers life in England in the Wakefield’s time and the Wakefield’s setting up of the New Zealand Company in the face of strong opposition from the Church Missionary Society whose own interests were  pecuniary as well as religious.

The story then moves on to Edward Gibbon’s dealings with the natives living on the land he wanted at what is now Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Marlborough and Taranaki. Then on to the arrival of the first settlers and the Wakefield’s ongoing problems with both the local Maori, the fledgling civil administration and  members of the Church Missionary Society.

I thought that I had a fairly good knowledge of early New Zealand, but this book opened up a new, more in depth layer of understanding.

Philip Temple has produced an outstanding book.

Mike Beckett

N.B. All books reviewed are available at the Library

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