This thesis explores the languages of Native policy in New Zealand’s General Assembly from 1858 to 1862. It argues, aligning with the scholarship of Peter Mandler and Duncan Bell, that a stadial discourse, which understood history as a progression from savage or barbarian states to those of civility, was the main paradigm in this period. Other discourses have received attention in New Zealand historiography, namely Locke and Vattel’s labour theory of land and Wakefield’s theory of systematic colonization; but some traditions have not been closely examined, including mid-Victorian Saxonism, the Burkean common law tradition, and the French discourse concerning national character. This thesis seeks to delineate these intellectual contexts that were both European and British, with reference to Imperial and colonial contexts. The thesis comprises a close reading of parliamentary addresses by C. W. Richmond, J. E. FitzGerald and Henry Sewell.

This thesis explores the languages of Native policy in New Zealand’s General Assembly from 1858 to 1862. It argues, aligning with the scholarship of Peter Mandler and Duncan Bell, that a stadial discourse, which understood history as a progression from savage or barbarian states to those of civility, was the main paradigm in this period. Other discourses have received attention in New Zealand historiography, namely Locke and Vattel’s labour theory of land and Wakefield’s theory of systematic colonization; but some traditions have not been closely examined, including mid-Victorian Saxonism, the Burkean common law tradition, and the French discourse concerning national character. This thesis seeks to delineate these intellectual contexts that were both European and British, with reference to Imperial and colonial contexts. The thesis comprises a close reading of parliamentary addresses by C. W. Richmond, J. E. FitzGerald and Henry Sewell.