MATHEW, FELTON (1801-47) was born in Goswell Street, London, his family coming from Latton, in Wiltshire, and his father being a cooper and wine merchant and a member of the common council of the City of London. In June 1829 he was appointed assistant-surveyor (roads and bridges) in New South Wales. In Jan 1832 he married his cousin Sarah Louisa Mathew (1805-90), a sister of Keats's friend George Felton Mathew. In 1835 he became town surveyor at Sydney.

In 1839 Mathew accepted an offer to accompany Captain Hobson as acting Surveyor-general of New Zealand. His diaries and journal letters, and those of his wife, give a very full account of Hobson's proceedings in the early months of 1840, often from a critical and unfriendly angle. After the successful negotiation of the Treaty of Waitangi, his first task was to select a site for the capital. Though Bay of Islands was the main centre of trade and the headquarters of the missionaries, neither Hobson nor Mathew considered it suitable. At the end of Feb Mathew visited the Waitemata with Hobson on the Herald, and the possibilities of the upper portion of the river were favourably noted. Mathew and Captain Symonds were to have been left to survey the isthmus and explore the Manukau and Waikato districts, while the Herald completed her southern tour; but Hobson's sudden illness in Mar necessitated a return to Bay of Islands before any real progress had been made. Despite his incapacity Hobson refused to delegate the task to his subordinates, and the delay thus occasioned rendered it essential to fix on a temporary site for the seat of Government at Bay of Islands. The arrival of the store-ship Westminster (17 Mar), with immigrants and stores, made it a matter of urgency to provide for a settlement. Kororareka was already settled; the available land was subject to conflicting land claims, and there was no room for development. Nevertheless Mathew advised the Governor to take over the place for government purposes and award compensation; but Hobson wisely refused to strain his limited authority by such an act. Busby's (q.v.) township of 'Victoria,' at Waitangi, though otherwise suitable for settlement, had no good anchorage. Mathew ultimately reported that Okiato, where J. R. Clendon (q.v.) had his dwelling and store, was 'the only spot in the Bay of Islands which is at all suitable for settlement, or calculated for the purposes of the Government'; and eventually an agreement was made (22 Mar) to purchase this site for £15,000. The Government took possession in May and 'Russell' (as Okiato was re-named in honour of the Secretary of State) remained the seat of government till the removal to Auckland in Mar 1841. The town of Russell, which Mathew surveyed and planned, did not materialise owing to the refusal of Gipps to sanction the purchase. Meanwhile Mathew was despatched in the cutter Ranger (Captain Carkeek) to explore the coast as far south as the Thames for a site for the permanent capital. He visited Whangarei (20-23 Apr), which he reported unsuitable except for a small settlement, and Mahurangi, with which he was more favourably impressed; but he was principally engaged in a thorough examination of the Waitemata and the Thames (27 Apr-30 May). The decision at which he arrived was that the spot previously noted by Hobson (near the present township of Hobsonville) was 'totally unfit for the site of the principal settlement, and indeed ill-adapted for a settlement at all,' having neither fresh water, wood, drainage, stone for roads and buildings, nor deep water near its shore. He recommended that the capital should be built on the Tamaki, near Panmure basin, on the lower slopes of Mt Wellington. The disadvantage of the river bar he considered not insuperable; smaller vessels could come upstream to the capital, while Waitemata (Auckland) might serve as a port for large ships. His judgment in this particular was not good, but he was right in attaching great importance to the isthmus between the Waitemata, Tamaki and Manukau, as 'the connecting link between the northern and southern portions of the Island ... the very key to the whole island, north and south, the centre through which every line of communication must unavoidably pass,' and in easy reach of the Waikato and Thames-Piako valleys, which 'must become the great agricultural district of the island.' Hobson was not convinced. As soon as he recovered, he revisited the Waitemata with Captain D. Rough (Jul), and rejected the Tamaki because of the difficulty of its river bar and channel in favour of the Waitemata shore near Ponsonby and Freeman's bay. In Sep Mathew returned in the barque Hannah Watson, with Symonds and others, to make preparations for the erection of the government buildings. The site was purchased from the Maori without difficulty (16 Sep; confirmed 20 Oct). Mathew chose Commercial bay, at the foot of present Queen street, as the place to erect the government store, and round this nucleus the town of Auckland rapidly took shape.

The place was surveyed, and a plan of the town drawn by Mathew; the Governor took formal possession of Government House in Mar 1841, and in Apr the first sale of town lots took place.

During the remainder of 1841, Mathew made fair progress with the survey, despite inadequate staff and lack of proper instruments. Besides surveying and planning the towns of Russell and Auckland, his department laid out some 250 small farms in the neighbourhood of the capital, and accomplished much preliminary work of exploration in the Manukau and Tamaki districts, at Mahurangi and Kaipara to the north, and at Wairoa and the Thames to the south-east.

Mathew had the confidence of both Gipps and Hobson, and it was a surprise to all three to learn, in Nov 1841, that he was to be superseded by C. W. Ligar (appointed Surveyor-general by the Colonial Office). Government's intention in 1839 had been to make no permanent appointments till the results of Hobson's mission were known, Gipps and Hobson being empowered to nominate certain officers from local residents, on the distinct understanding that their appointment was provisional. Apparently Gipps did not make this condition clear; and when, in due course, Mathew's appointment was notified to the Home Government and approved, Gipps, Hobson and Mathew all regarded this as confirmation of a permanent appointment. The Colonial Office took a different view. Pending appeal, Mathew acted as Postmaster-general and chief police magistrate, and when the Colonial Government became financially embarrassed he resigned these posts and further declined the offer of appointment as deputy surveyor-general.

In Jan 1845, he left New Zealand for England, to make a personal appeal to Lord Stanley. While in London, he provided much useful information to the Colonial Office and parliament on New Zealand. Stanley confirmed his appointment as deputy Postmaster-general and resident police magistrate, but on his return to New Zealand, Governor Grey refused to implement the Colonial Office's arrangements, as he considered the police magistrate should be a military officer. Mathew declined the post office, and, disappointed and broken in health, left Auckland for England in the Thomas King. He intended to travel via Panama, and died at Lima, Peru, on 26 Nov 1847.

Family information from Mrs Hilda McCleary; Felton Mathew MSS.; P.R.O. London, series C.O. 209; N.Z. Archives; Internal Affairs dept.; G.B.O.P., 1840-42 (notably 1842/569).

Reference: Volume 2, page 39

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