Hocken Digital Collections

Shortland, Edward : Papers

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Reference NumberARC-0020CreatorShortland, Edward, Dr, 1812-1893DescriptionThe collection includes manuscripts and notebooks containing research on aspects of Māori history, traditions, mythology, folklore and customs; dictionaries containing Maori and Melanesian vocabulary and grammar; and journals relating to Shortland's travels within New Zealand to various Māori settlements, detailing customs, land issues and disputes and relationships between Māori and Pākehā. Correspondence includes letters between Shortland, Sir William Fox, Sir George Grey, other political administrators and many Māori individuals. It concerns various matters, such as Māori 'rebellious acts', the King Movement, accounts of journeys and visits undertaken, general Māori affairs and customs, disputes between Pākehā and Māori, land issues and inter-tribal conflict. There also includes letters from Māori leaders relating to land title investigation, the gifting of land to Pākehā and Māori concerns relating to increasing Pākehā settlement and loss of land. Included also are notes written in Māori outlining in detail the population of Māori males living in certain areas of the Waikato, Hauraki and Tauranga regions, lists of Māori settlements and tribes and notes on major Māori gatherings. Other material includes unsigned copies of 'oath of allegiance' forms, clippings, plans, sketches and a watercolour drawing of a canoe.
Only a small part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyEdward Shortland arrived in New Zealand in 1841 and on 25 June succeeded James Coates as private secretary to the governor. He became involved in various areas of colonial administration, including land claims. Shortland had a great interest in the Māori language and way of life and during his tour of Waikato in 1842 he came into contact with influential individuals such as Potatau Te Wherowhero of Ngāti Mahuta. After this tour, Shortland took the position of police magistrate and sub-protector for the eastern district, which involved mediation between Europeans and Māori over stock trespassing on tapu land and land ownership and transfer. He also acted as interpreter at land claim court, hearing many land claim disputes. In 1844 Shortland visited Māori settlements on the South Island and it was through these visits, with the help of his guides, that he was able to compile censuses at each settlement and produce his first written history of the South Island Māori. It was at this time that he also recorded the earliest account of the major southern canoe myth, Arai-te-uru. His surviving journals of this period and later his book,'The southern districts of New Zealand - a journal with passing notices of the customs of the aborigines', provide a detailed picture of southern Māori, before Pākehā colonisation was widespread. After returning to the North Island and embarking on unsatisfactory positions he returned to England, practising as a physician in Plymouth. In 1862, however, Shortland returned to New Zealand to assist Governor George Grey in implementing a new scheme for management of Māori affairs, he was appointed to the post of civil commissioner for Waihou, in the Hauraki region. It was Shortland's task to restore Māori confidence in the British government, but he served only a short period, being made native secretary, the principal government post in dealing with Māori issues in 1863. However, in 1865 he returned once again to England. Shortland made several more trips between England and New Zealand and continued to remain deeply interested in Māori land īssues. He contributed to the rationalisation of land transfer procedures through the Martin-Shortland plan. In 1882 he published his major work on tradition and mythology, 'Maori religion and mythology' and in 1883 his informal textbook on the Māori language, 'How to learn Maori, a short treatise on the structure and idiom of the language', appeared. Shortland died in 1893.
(From 'The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography', http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/en/biographies).

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Shortland, Edward : Papers

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