Apart from this and the activities of the sealing gangs who found it increasingly hard to obtain skins in payable quantities, and the inter-tribal petty wars of the Maoris, nothing further of importance occurred in Westland’s history for almost twenty years, when in 1846 there came the pioneer explorers, and although the early constitutional history of the Dominion does not come within the ramifications of this work, it is essential here to briefly show how the Province under discussion came into being and became known as Westland, and further, to describe it as it was in the beginning.
In this respect it is necessary first to observe that almost immediately after Cook returned to England on the completion of his first voyage round the world, there was published in London, on August 29th, 1771, a pamphlet by Alexander Dalrymple, entitled “Scheme of a Voyage to convey the Conveniences of Life, Domestic Animals, Corn, Iron, etc., to New Zeland [sic], with Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s Sentiments on the Subject.” The idea Dalrymple had in mind was to civilize the Maoris by furnishing them with useful commodities, taking in exchange whatever goods the natives could supply by way of trade. Dalrymple being unsuccessful in raising money to carry out his plan, the matter dropped, but he was the first to suggest the idea of opening up commerce with New Zealand, thus paving the way for its colonization.
