SCHULTZE, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-79) was born at Edinburgh, the family having settled in Scotland from Germany a century earlier. His father was a West Indian merchant. In 1836 Schultze emigrated to Australia. He obtained a position in the firm of Weller Brothers (formerly of Amersham, Buckinghamshire). They were merchants, shipowners and whalers, and in 1831 they established a whaling station in Otago harbour, where they met with keen opposition from J. Jones (q.v.). In 1832 their station was destroyed by a fire which burned down 80 houses and raupo huts.

Giving evidence before the Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1839, George Weller claimed to have purchased 500,000 acres of land in Otago from Taiaroa, and announced his intention of settling a colony of white people upon it. A month or two later Schultze was sent down in the schooner Henry Freeling (91 tons), which was to bring back a cargo of Otago potatoes. She was wrecked at Tautuku about Sep 1839, and it was some months before Schultze found his way back to Sydney in the schooner Lucy Ann. He had an interest in Otago, and in 1844, when the New Edinburgh scheme was postponed, he obtained a refund of money paid to the New Zealand Company for two sections of land. Having married Anne Meek (d. 1887), a daughter of Joseph Weller, Schultze returned to New Zealand in 1842 in the schooner Shepherdess which he commanded. After a few voyages to Tahiti for fruit, he settled in Wellington, operating a flourmill at Kaiwarra for 20 years, when he retired. The granary was in Willis street.

Schultze was an officer of militia, being gazetted captain in 1863. From 1853 until his death he was a justice of the peace. He was a member of the Settlers' Constitutional Association. At the first election for the Provincial Council he was defeated, but in 1854 he was elected to represent Wellington Country, and he continued in the Council almost continuously until 1865. During Featherston's superintendency he was speaker (1861-65), and on four occasions he acted as deputy-superintendent. Schultze was a useful member of the Council, but his speakership was stormy. Politics ran high and a jury found for Schultze in a libel action and bound the paper over in recognisances of £200.

Schultze was a Presbyterian and a member of the building committee of St Andrew's Church in 1866. He was also a prominent freemason, being an early member of the Pacific Lodge. He was one of the first directors, in 1877, of the Wellington Steam Tramways Co. He died on 2 Mar 1879.

Wellington P.C. Proc.; J G Wilson; Ward; Ingram and Wheatley; Evening Post, 18 Nov 1929; Otago Witness, 13 Dec 1856.

Reference: Volume 2, page 141

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