Frederick Edward Maning ( 1812 - 1883)

Early settler in New Zealand, a writer, and a judge of the Native Land Court. He published two books under the pseudonym of “a Pakeha Maori”.

Maning arrived in the Hokianga area at age 22, on 30 June 1833, and lived among the Ngāpuhi Māori. With Maning’s physical skills and great stature, as well as his considerable good humour, he quickly gained favour with the tribe. He became known as a Pākehā Māori (a European turned native) and his arrival in New Zealand is the subject of the first chapters of his book Old New Zealand.

In 1837, he sold his property and returned to Hobart. He returned to Hokianga in March 1839 and in September purchased 200 acres (0.8 km2) for a farm at Onoke, at the mouth of the Whirinaki River. He built a house there that was standing until it was destroyed by fire in 2004. He took a Māori wife, Moengaroa, of Te Hikutu hapū of Ngāpuhi, and they had four children, Susan, Maria Amina, Hauraki Hereward and Mary.

In 1840, Maning acted as a translator at meetings about the Treaty of Waitangi, and he advised the local Māori to not sign. His vocal opposition to the Treaty was primarily because he had settled with the Māori precisely to escape from the restrictions of European civilisation. He feared that the introduction of European style law would put a damper on his lifestyle and on his entrepreneurial trading activities. He warned the Māori that European colonisation would degrade them. Governor William Hobson countered by telling the Māori that without British Law, lawless self-interested Europeans without any regard for Māori rights would soon take all their land. Maning’s book Old New Zealand is, in part, a lament for the lost freedom enjoyed before European rule.