Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was born in London in 1796. For part of his childhood his grandmother, Mrs. Priscilla Wakefield, was his guardian. She was a prominent Quaker, author of several books including A Family Tour through the British Empire (1814), an active social worker and founder of a savings bank. His father was also a philanthropist and author of An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political (1812), but he does not appear to have been an active member of the Society of Friends.
page 254 note 1 The author of this article is preparing for publication an edition of the Collected Works of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, with an introduction summarising his contribution as an economist, political theorist, politician and empire builder.
page 254 note 2 See England and America, 1833, Volume II, p. 192.Google Scholar
page 254 note 3 See The Art of Colonisation, 1849, p. 169.Google Scholar
page 255 note 1 See Wakefield's edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, 1835, Volume I, Note on Chapter I, Book I, p. 26.Google Scholar The same point was made in England and America, Volume I, pp. 16ff, and in The Art of Colonisation, pp. 167ff.Google Scholar
page 255 note 2 See England and America, Volume I, p. 120.Google Scholar See also Wakefield's, edition of Adam Smith, Volume I, pp. 227–254.Google Scholar
page 255 note 3 See The Art of Colonisation, pp. 331–349.Google Scholar
page 256 note 1 See A Letter from Sydney, 1829, p. 84.Google ScholarThe same advice is repeated in The New British Province of South Australia, Appendix I, p. 147.Google Scholar
page 256 note 2 He added that at least one good Political Economist would be welcome in each settlement to prevent the establishment of a tariff. Ibid., p. 85.
page 256 note 3 See Mills, R. C., The Colonisation of Australia, 1915, p. 164.Google Scholar Before 1831, land had been sold.
page 256 note 4 See The Economic Record, April 1957Google Scholar: Wakefield, E. G. and the Alienation of Crown Land in New South Wales to 1847Google Scholar, by K. Buckley.
page 257 note 1 See Table 20, Statistics of New Zealand for the Crown Colony Period 1840–1852Google Scholar, Department of Economics, Auckland University College, 1954.Google Scholar
page 257 note 2 See Table 13, Statistics of New Zealand.
page 257 note 3 See Table 18, Ibid.
page 258 note 1 See Table 15, Statistics of New Zealand.
page 258 note 2 Wakefield had expressed the hope, in A Letter from Sydney, that a system of universal education would speedily be put in operation.
page 258 note 3 See Tables 1, 31 and 32 of Statistics of New Zealand, op. cit.
page 258 note 4 See Table 32, Statistics of New Zealand, op. cit. Similar variations can be noted at Nelson and New Plymouth.
page 259 note 1 See The Colonisation of New Zealand by Marais, J. S., 1927, p. 321Google Scholar, where Marais quotes Wakefield's enthusiastic comments on sales of land for the Canterbury settlement.
page 259 note 2 Ibid., p. 157.
page 260 note 1 Ibid., p. 146.
page 261 note 1 See N. Z. Spectator, 15.6.53, in which the editorial reminded Wakefield that he had written that if labour was hurtfully scarce the price of land was too low. In fact, however, the editor commented, labour was very scarce but land could not be sold because the price was too high.
page 266 note 1 N.Z. Parliamentary Debates, 11.7.1854, pp. 189–196.Google Scholar
page 267 note 1 N.Z. Parliamentary Debates, 18.7. 1854.Google Scholar
page 267 note 2 N.Z. Parliamentary Debates, 18.7.1854.Google Scholar See also the New Zealander, 22.7.1854Google Scholar, and the Southern Cross, 24.7.1854.Google Scholar
page 268 note 1 28.7.1854.
page 268 note 2 Later, it was said that the Legislative Council was giving favourable consideration to Wakefield's amendments. See N.Z. Spectator, 9.12.1854.Google Scholar