GODLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1814-61) was born in 1814, the eldest son of a landed proprietor at Killegar, county Leitrim, Ireland, his mother being a sister of Robert Daly, Bishop of Cashel. Godley went first to Ward's preparatory school at Iver, and then to Harrow. Here he won the Sayers scholarship (1831), but as he wished to go to Oxford he did not take it up. In 1832 he obtained a governor's scholarship for Oxford and was admitted to Christ Church. There he won the Fell scholarship, and in 1835 took a second class in classics for his B.A., which he gained in 1836.

He then studied for the bar, was duly called and held a brief or two; but his interest was rather in the principles than in the practice of law, and he studied deeply the science of politics. Not robust in health, Godley travelled a good deal in Europe and North America. His Letters from America (1844) attracted attention by their shrewd and understanding comments on men and things. In view of the difficulties of Ireland he devoted much study to the problem of colonisation, and put forward for official consideration a scheme under which over a million people should be emigrated from Ireland to Canada and settled in one district. The cost, estimated at £10,000,000, was to be met by a loan charged on the landed property of Ireland, and the interest paid out of income tax specially raised for the purpose. The scheme, though supported by a memorial largely signed by Irish landowners, was turned down as being too costly. Meanwhile the famine burst with full force upon the country, a million people died and more than a million fled to find better conditions in the United States. Godley in these times did his duty as a country gentleman, acting as required in the capacity of magistrate, grand juror, and poor law guardian. His observations on the poor law in Ireland show how deeply he was interested in his fellow-men. In that year he contested the county seat in Parliament as a Tory, but was unsuccessful, chiefly owing to the conviction of the Catholics that it would not do to have the county represented from Killegar. His liberal opinions, however, pleased them.

About this time Godley and Gibbon Wakefield were attracted to each other's schemes, and they were introduced, with results which were to be of great importance to Canterbury. Wakefield, who was scheming a Church of England settlement in New Zealand, saw that Godley, with his wealthy connections, his Oxford upbringing, and his known opinions on colonisation, would be a great asset. Accordingly, he persuaded him to take a leading part in it. The published correspondence shows that Godley spent much time elaborating the scheme; FitzGerald (in his prefatory memoir to Godley's speeches) says that he was actually the author. At any rate, suffering in health as he was, and faced with the absolute necessity of going to Italy or some other sunny climate, Godley agreed to be head and front of the expedition. In order that he could take part in the negotiations he became a director of the New Zealand Company and managing director of the Canterbury Association. Through him, many staunch supporters, by whose help the thing was eventually revived and carried through, were brought in. During the two years occupied in maturing the scheme Godley was a constant contributor to the Canterbury Papers and to the Morning Chronicle, the London paper which was most interested in colonial questions. The underlying principle of the proposal was that land sales would provide funds for the endowment of religion and education, twin ideals which specially appealed to the wealthy friends of the movement. In fact, it was the proposed 'Buller College' or 'Buller University' (named after the deceased Charles Buller) which fascinated several of them.

Warned by the advance of tuberculosis in his system that he must get out of England, Godley with his little family sailed in the Lady Nugent towards the end of 1849 to prepare the way for the settlers. The vessel anchored in Port Cooper on 14 Apr 1850. The harbour was much better than he had anticipated. Captain Thomas (q.v.), who had been sent down by the Company to prepare for the arrival of the colonists, had not only laid out the town of Lyttelton (where a dozen or so houses had been erected) but he had built houses for the surveyor and agent and for the accommodation of the immigrants and had run a jetty out into twelve feet of water. Godley rode over the hill with Thomas to visit the Deans family, who had settled on the plains long since, and incidentally he gave the name of Shakespeare to the river which they had already named after the Scotch Avon.

The funds available having all been expended, Godley stopped expenditure; but approved of what Thomas had done. Having some months on his hands, he proceeded to Wellington, where Grey was now in charge of the administration. There he remained until the end of the year, devoting much thought to the fight of the Settler's Constitutional Association against Grey's semi-nominated council and in favour of full representative government. Meanwhile, in England the prospects of the Canterbury Association were revived and carried through to success by the action of Lord Lyttelton in the spring of 1850 in accepting the chairmanship of the managing committee. Within a few months the first four ships were on the berth for Port Cooper. Godley returned to Lyttelton to welcome their arrival. Three ships cast anchor on 16 Dec. Thenceforward for about two years Godley was in all but name governor of the new colony. On the whole he administered his trust with sagacity and never-failing consideration for all with whom he had to do. Bold resolves had to be taken, as for instance when, rather than drive away from the province experienced Australian pastoralists who were willing to take up runs, he reversed the regulation regarding squatting. But in doing this he had a previous understanding with the Land Purchasers' Society that they would faithfully abide by the decision of the Association.

During 1851 Godley was troubled by the intention of the Canterbury Association in London to retain in its own hands the nomination of the managing committee in New Zealand. How deeply he felt on any form of absentee government he expressed to FitzGerald in these words: 'I would rather be governed by a Nero on the spot than by a board of angels in London, because we could, if the worst came to the worst, cut off Nero's head, but we could not get at the board in London at all.' He actually wrote to the Association during 1851 resigning on these grounds his position as its agent. The Association delayed accepting the resignation and took power, under the constitution which was then being framed, to transfer all its powers of government to the superintendent and provincial council of Canterbury. When the constitution of 1852 arrived in the Colony, Godley was requested to stand for the office of superintendent. He declined on the ground that he had made arrangements to be back in England in three years, and he sailed for Home on 22 Dec 1852.

Appointed to a commissionership of income tax in Ireland, he soon transferred to England, and on the remodelling of the War Office he was appointed head of the store department. He became assistant Secretary at War under Lords Panmure and Herbert and General Peel. In 1854 he was appointed agent in London for Canterbury, but this post he resigned in 1856 as being inconsistent with his official duties. In 1860 the recrudescence of his disease, which for years made speaking most painful, caused Godley to go to Italy for a change.

Returning to the War Office, he had much to do with the report in 1861 of the departmental committee on the military defence of the colonies, and he gave evidence before a parliamentary committee. The report had an important bearing on the subsequent policy of the British Government during the Maori war. Godley's opinions on the subject were stated in a speech which he made on his return from New Zealand in 1853: 'May I earnestly and solemnly impress the one great fundamental maxim of sound colonial policy-it is, to let your colonies alone; not chiefly because your interference will probably be an injudicious kind in this or that particular matter-still less because it will be costly and troublesome to yourselves-but because it tends to spoil, corrupt, and to degrade them; because they will never do anything, or be fit for anything great so long as their chief political business is to complain of you, to fight with you, and to lean upon you; so long as they consider you responsible for their welfare, and can look to you for assistance in their difficulties. I protest quite as much against subsidies and subscriptions as against vetoes and restraints; indeed more, for the poison is more subtle, and the chance of resistance less. I want you neither to subsidise their treasuries nor to support their clergy, nor to do their police duty with your soldiers, because they ought to do these things for themselves, and by your doing it all you contribute to making them effeminate, degenerate, and helpless. Do not be afraid to leave them to themselves; throw them into the water and they will swim.' Godley's career, which would inevitably have led to great distinction, was cut short. He died on 17 Nov 1861. Mrs Godley, who was a daughter of C. G. Wynne, of Voelas, Denbighshire, wrote an interesting series of letters from New Zealand in 1850 (published in 1936). She died in 1907. The eldest son, JOHN ARTHUR, (1847-1932) became Secretary of State for India and was raised to the peerage as Baron Kilbracken.

Canterbury P.C. Proc.; D.N.B.; Cycl. N.Z., iii; N.Z.C. (Canterbury Association papers); FitzGerald, Selection from Writings and Speeches of J. R. Godley; Godley, op. cit. and Speeches; Reeves; Marais; A. Trollope, Australia and New Zealand, 1873; Cant. O.N.; Acland; Kilbracken; Woodhouse; The Press, 28 Oct 1861, 29 Jun 1862, 15 Dec 1900, 5 Jan 1907, 11 Apr 1908, 25 Jan 1930 (p)

Reference: Volume 1, page 169

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