By the end of the year reports from
London regarding Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, and from the
Bay of Islands regarding the hospitality of the
Māori, encourage
Samuel Marsden into thinking the time for the establishment of a Christian mission to New Zealand is now imminent.[1]
Whaling ships are a regular occurrence off the coasts of New Zealand, usually calling into the
Bay of Islands. A number have Māori among their crew.
Sealing ships operate in both
Bass Strait and
Macquarie Island, occasionally calling into New Zealand. A few have Māori among their crew.[1]
19 April – The Perseverance, leaves
Sydney looking for flax trading possibilities in the south of the
South Island. During the trip she is the first ship known to have entered
Bluff Harbour.[1][2]
27 November – The Governor BlighCaptain John Grono, collects the sealing gang left marooned on the Open Bay islands off the south
West Coast since
1810 by the loss of their ship
Active (first vessel of that name).[1]
16 December – The Governor Bligh returns to Port Jackson.[1]
Undated
Early in the year
Ruatara is finally returned home. With the death during his absence of
Te Pahi and his elder brother, Ruatara is made paramount chief of Ngā Puhi. He has seed wheat given to him by
Samuel Marsden and intends to grow it to sell to Europeans. He does not however have anything to grind the wheat with.[1] (see
1814)
Robert Brown and 7 others of the Matilda sail from Stewart Island in a ship's boat to search the east coast of the
South Island as far as Moeraki and
Oamaru looking for the missing lascars. They are all killed and, presumably, eaten.[1]
^Anne Salmond's Between Worlds describes in the narrative (p.312) the following two incidents as having taken place in 1814 (as do reports in the histories of
Moeraki and
Oamaru) but in the appendix (p.524) as having occurred after the Matilda left
Port Jackson on 4 August 1813 and implying they happened later that year, as is the case in
NZETC: The Matilda at Otago, 1813.
^
abcdWilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer.
OCLC154283103.
^Smith, Arthur R. (2006), William Charles Cotton MA: Priest, Missionary and Bee Master, Birkenhead: Countyvise,
ISBN1-901231-81-X