Joel Samuel Polack - Return To England

Return To England

He returned to England in 1837 and the following year his Kororareka store, which had been used against his wishes to store military and naval explosives, was destroyed in an explosion. He fought unsuccessfully for years for compensation. In 1838 he appeared before a House of Lords Select Committee advocating planned colonisation of New Zealand. He believed that unorganised European settlement would destroy Māori society. He wrote two successful books based on his experiences in New Zealand, which he also illustrated. These books are an invaluable insight into pre-colonial New Zealand.

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Famous quotes related to return to england:

    “This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)