BUSBY, JAMES (1800-71) was born at Glasgow, the son of John Busby, who was appointed to New South Wales as mineral surveyor and civil engineer. Before leaving Europe James Busby studied the culture of the vine in France, with the idea that wine might take the place of beer and spirits in Australia.

On the voyage to Australia (1823) he compiled his work on viticulture, which he published in 1825. He conducted practical experiments to such effect that he was able in 1831 to send the permanent under-secretary at the Colonial Office a sample case of wine. In 1824 he found employment in the civil service and during his service as superintendent of the male orphan school at Cabramatta he made his first experiments at wine culture. He then became collector of internal revenue, and a member of the land board (which carried the title of 'honourable'). He was also a commissioner to inquire into the state of penal settlements. In 1830 he retired dissatisfied with his treatment by the government in England, Lord Goderich having made an appointment which in effect superseded him. He accordingly in 1831 returned to England, and impressed himself on the Colonial Office by numerous informative reports on colonial questions (including viticulture, pauper emigration, crown lands, the jury system, and New Zealand affairs). Through the influence of Lord Haddington, which had previously been used in his favour, Lord Goderich decided to appoint him resident in New Zealand, in preference to Darling's nominee, Sturt (Mar 1832). Darling had tried to find employment for Busby, but favoured a military officer for the post in New Zealand. Goderich intended that the resident's authority should be supported by a British vessel of war permanently stationed at New Zealand, and that an act should be passed conferring on him magisterial authority over British subjects. Neither intention was carried out. The Admiralty would not do more than order occasional visits to New Zealand by warships serving in New South Wales; and the bill for extending the jurisdiction of New South Wales courts to New Zealand failed on the plea that New Zealand was not within the British dominions. Busby therefore had to rely on what moral influence he could gain over the Maori chiefs with the aid of missionaries. To Bourke, who had succeeded to the governorship of New South Wales, Busby was not persona grata, and he soon had reason to complain that he was inadequately supported by the New South Wales government. Indeed, within eighteen months, the governor was recommending his withdrawal (1 Sep 1834). His frequent requests for increased powers went unheeded, and his impotence gained him an undeserved reputation for inefficiency.

In 1832 Busby was married at Segenhoe, New South Wales, to Miss Agnes Dow. He arrived in New Zealand in May 1833, was well received by the chiefs of the North, and in due course established his official residence at Waitangi, building his house on land which he purchased at his own expense. Busby laboured to create some rudimentary organisation of the chiefs and tribes of the North, by which they might gradually acquire a sense of responsibility, and under his guidance enforce certain simple regulations for their own protection and that of the European settlers. The Sir George Murray, of Hokianga, having been seized by the Sydney customs authorities, Busby induced a conference of chiefs to adopt a national flag (20 Mar 1834) to provide New Zealand-built ships with certificates of registration. This conference brought into being a simple native tribunal to handle on behalf of the New Zealand tribes any transactions of an international character; as well as local matters such as the arrest of convicts and deserters. The flag was duly recognised by the Admiralty, and thereafter New Zealand-built vessels were granted certificates of registration by the resident in the name of the Independent Tribes of New Zealand. Busby regarded this 'national act of the New Zealand chiefs' as 'the first step towards the formation of a permanent confederation of the chiefs.' On 30 May 1834, Busby, who had now been joined by his wife, narrowly escaped death in an attack on his house by native marauders. He was wounded in the cheek by a splinter from a wooden door post. The chiefs in conference disavowed the act and promised to trace the guilty parties, but thought it better 'to let the matter sleep for the present.' The settlers at the Bay upbraided Busby for his weakness, but in Dec 1834, when H.M.S. Alligator arrived with troops, fresh from the punitive expedition against the captors of the crew of the Harriet, the culprit Rete was apprehended by the chiefs, who decided to punish him by exile and confiscation of his lands to the Crown. Busby declined the land for himself. With the departure of the Alligator, however, Rete defied Busby and boasted of his powers in having 'shot the British resident.' Busby was as much defied by Europeans as by natives. Unable to afford legal protection to person or property, and unwilling therefore to interfere in European disputes, he soon gained the title of 'No-authority Busby,' and when several petitions to the Crown for protection produced no result, the Bay settlers took the law into their own hands by forming the Kororareka Association for the administration of a species of lynch law (1838). His vexations were increased by the appointment in 1835 of Thomas McDonnell as additional British resident at Hokianga, an honorary appointment, nominally subordinate to his own, but in fact exercised by an energetic and headstrong man in complete independence of Busby's wishes. In Sep 1835, when McDonnell led a movement for prohibiting the importation and sale of spirits, by means of a 'law' enacted by the natives and the British residents, to be administered by a mixed committee, Busby sympathised with the purpose of the scheme, but believed it both ultra vires and impracticable. He also resented McDonnell's having taken independent action without consulting him as chief resident. McDonnell obtained the approval of the Governor of New South Wales, and Busby had the mortification of seeing his views set aside. His action in this matter, though fully vindicated by the complete failure of the prohibition plan in practice, brought him into undesired conflict with the missionary body, especially at Bay of Islands.

Simultaneously (Oct 1835) came the announcement by de Thierry that he intended to set himself up in New Zealand as a sovereign chief and a benefactor of the Maori race. Busby seized on this 'external threat' as an occasion for advancing his plans of native organisation a step further, and induced 36 northern chiefs to sign a Declaration of Independence, purporting to create 'a Confederation of the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand,' with exclusive powers of legislation through an assembly and of administration through a native committee advised and controlled by the British Resident. Busby believed that the chiefs would enact and enforce whatever laws the British government thought advantageous, and that in effect 'the establishment of the Independence of New Zealand under the protection of the British government would be the most effectual mode of making the country a dependency of the British crown in everything but the name.' The New South Wales government recognised the Confederation as an approach to a regular form of government in New Zealand (Feb 1836) and Glenelg gave a cautious promise of 'British support and protection' (May 1836). But it soon became evident that, in the absence of any real British authority to support it, the experiment had little chance of success. Busby's renewed appeals for legal powers as magistrate and for a police force, now more than ever necessary, produced no result. The outbreak of tribal wars, which in 1836 and 1837 spread over the whole country from Tauranga and Rotorua to Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, revealed the impotence of the new 'government.' In Jan 1836, Busby wrote that the powers of the Confederation existed only in theory, the natives had no conception of subordination to legal authority, and during their slow political education they needed the protection of British troops. When troops were refused, Busby confessed his complete impotence (May 1836); he considered his office in abeyance and asked leave (which Bourke refused) to go to England to put the needs of New Zealand before the Colonial Office. Beyond occasional arrests, four Europeans were deported by authority of the Confederation for trial and execution in Sydney in 1837, and a Maori slave was put to death in New Zealand for his share in the murder of Henry Biddle.

In 1837 Captain Hobson visited New Zealand and made proposals for its better government by adoption of a modified factory system, whereby the districts settled by Europeans should be brought under direct British rule. Busby prepared a set of counter-proposals based on his Confederation scheme, and was on the point of leaving for London to further his scheme and carry through some business proposals when he learnt of the appointment of Hobson as consul and lieutenant-governor of New Zealand, empowered to negotiate for the cession of the country. It is greatly to Busby's credit that his disappointment did not prevent his cordial co-operation with Hobson in drafting the Treaty of Waitangi and negotiating its acceptance by the chiefs. Busby's services were handsomely recognised by Hobson in his despatches.

After visiting Sydney to defend his land claims and oppose Gipps's land act for New Zealand (1840), Busby returned to New Zealand as a permanent settler. He continued to play an active part in public affairs, and published many able and interesting pamphlets on questions of land and general policy. He represented Bay of Islands in the Auckland Provincial Council from 1853-55, 1857-63, and was the leader of the unsuccessful movement to erect Auckland province into a separate colony. To further the land claims of himself and other settlers who claimed also to have been unjustly treated, Busby established a newspaper in Auckland. After 27 years of agitation he was awarded £38,000 compensation (1869) by the Colonial government. In 1870 he visited England for medical advice, and he died at Anerley on 15 Jul 1871. His widow died on 13 Oct 1889.

P.R.O. London, series C.O. 202 and 209; G.B.O.P., exp. 1832/516, 1835/585, 1836/538, 1837/425, 1837-38/122, 1838/680, 1840/238, 560, 582, 1841/311, 1845/108, 1846/337; Hist. Rec. Aust.; Auckland P.C. Proc.; Church Missionary Register, 1833-40; Marsden, L. and J., esp. p 502 n; Buick, Waitangi (p); Scholefield, Hobson; Hight and Bamford; Ramsden; Morton; Buller; Mennell; Turner; Sherrin and Wallace; Hocken in Otago Witness, 17 Dec 1896; N.Z. Herald, 16 Jan 1869.

Reference: Volume 1, page 78

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