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Image Not Available for Acknowledgement of Australian asistance in the Taranaki War
Acknowledgement of Australian asistance in the Taranaki War
Image Not Available for Acknowledgement of Australian asistance in the Taranaki War

Acknowledgement of Australian asistance in the Taranaki War

Date1860 - 1861
Object number00008350
NameParliamentary paper
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 334 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA copy of a parliamentary paper from the Superintendent of the settlement of New Plymouth in New Zealand expressing gratitude for the assistance by Australia and requesting any further support funding for the settlers be paid direct into an account at the Union Bank of Australia called the "Taranaki General Relief Fund".HistoryIn 1860 a contingent of 30 sailors and two officers from the Victorian Colonial Navy and the ship VICTORIA, took part in the siege of Maori forces at the pa (fortress) at Matarikoriko, Taranaki in New Zealand on December 29, 1860. The siege was a culmination of tensions arising from continual land disputes between the local European settlers and Maori inhabitants of the area. This parlimentary paper is in recognition of the support from the Victorian Navy and notes: "I have the honor to transmit a resolution of the Provincial Council of Taranaki, acknowledging the assistance which has been given to our settlers by their countrymen in / Victoria, on occasion of their loses by the Maori War in this Province, and I should feel / obliged if your Government would give publicity to the same. I have been requested also to call the attention of the Government of Victoria to the circumstance that a part of the aid which has been forwarded through private hands has for that reason failed of its full beneficial effect. The Colonial Government of New Zealand has taken / on itself the care of present relief, and is sparing neither trouble nor expense to secure every / inhabitant of the Province from all but unavoidable hardship; I should therefore feel obliged / if you would forward the wish of the Provincial Council by recommending that any further aid / transmitted to New Zealand should be paid into the Union Bank of Australia to the credit of the "Taranaki General Relief Fund, " in the joint names of the Colonial Treasurer and the / Provincial treasurer of Taranaki. This fund I would observe will be applied towards reinstating those who have been / sufferers by the war, and is quite independent of Votes of Legislature for present relief. / The names of the two public functionaries will be a guarantee for the public and equitable / administration of such funds. I trust to your kindness to carry this request into effect in such / a way that we may not seem to be encroaching on the bounty of our neighbours in Australia". SignificanceWhen the Victorian Colonial Navy and the war ship VICTORIA became involved in the Taranaki Wars in New Zealand, it became the first British-built ship given to a colony of the British Empire and the first Australian warship to be deployed overseas.