'Every Comfort of a Civilized Life': Interracial Marriage and Mixed Race Respectability in Southern New Zealand

Abstract

During his 1843 trip along the southern coast of New Zealand, government official Edward Shortland found the whaling settlement recently established at Jacob's River/Aparima (now Riverton) in the Foveaux Strait 'built on the southern slope of some well wooded hills, and being white-washed, and having near them green enclosures of corn and potatos, presented, while shone on by the morning sun, the most smiling and refreshing aspect imaginable. Shortland's account presents a sharp contrast to descriptions of northern settlements in the Bay of Islands, where early cultural exchanges were often characterized by licentious and lewd behaviour.