1808 in New Zealand - Events

Events

  • May – The last sighting of the pirated ship Venus off the east coast of the North Island.
  • Late May/June – Te Pahi, with three of his sons, travels to Port Jackson on the Commerce to complain to Governor of New South Wales Bligh about the kidnapping of his daughter and her husband by Captain Dalrymple.
  • May(?) – The Parramatta, Captain John Glenn, calls at the Bay of Islands in distress. When local Māori ask for payment for the food they have supplied to the ship they are thrown overboard and fired upon. On leaving the Bay the ship is wrecked on rocks near Cape Brett. All the crew are killed and the ship plundered.
  • 10 July – The Commerce arrives in Port Jackson. Te Pahi arrives ill and is unable to meet Governor Bligh formally in any case as the latter is under house arrest.
  • 26 September – Te Pahi returns to the Bay of Islands on the Commerce.
  • September/October – The King George, Captain Richard Siddons, visits the Bounty Islands and finds the sealing gang, including Ruatara, left there by the Santa Anna the previous year. 3 of the gang have died from hunger and thirst. The King George provides some provisions.
  • October – Several weeks after the King George leaves the Santa Anna returns to collect the sealing gang. Ruatara decides to stay with the ship for its return to England as he wants to meet King George III.
Undated
  • Either 1807 or this year Charlotte Badger, from the Venus, is presumed to have left New Zealand, after at least twice refusing passage to Port Jackson. A woman fitting her description is sighted in Tonga nearly 10 years later.
  • Either 1807 or early this year, Ngāpuhi are defeated at the battle of Moremonui at Maunganui Bluff. Although armed with a few muskets the Ngā Puhi are ambushed by Murupaenga, leader of Ngāti Whātua, who successfully takes advantage of the time taken to reload the muskets. The fighting chief of Ngāpuhi, Pokaia, is killed as are 2 of Hongi Hika’s brothers. After this Hongi becomes the war leader of Ngāpuhi.
  • There is a skirmish between the Ngāti Korokoro branch of Ngāpuhi and the Te Roroa of Ngāti Whātua at Wai-mamaku. Although the battle is indecisive Hongi Hika is impressed by the muskets and is determined to obtain more.
  • Thomas Kendall applies to the Church Missionary Society to be a missionary/settler in New Zealand.
  • Late this year or early 1809 the Unity, Captain Daniel Cooper, is probably the first identifiable European ship to visit Otago Harbour. For a while the harbour is called 'Port Daniel' by visiting sealers. Hooper's Inlet, on the seaward side of the Otago Peninsula is named for the Unity's First Officer Charles Hooper.
  • Samuel Marsden raises a band of lay settlers for the Church Missionary Society mission to New Zealand. They are to prepare the way for ordained ministers. A schoolmaster, Thomas Kendall; a joiner, William Hall; and a ropemaker, John King, are chosen to be the first to leave England.

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