New Zealand Company ships
The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. Under Wakefield's model, the colony would attract capitalists who would then have a ready supply of labour—migrant labourers who could not initially afford to be property owners, but who would have the expectation of one day buying land with their savings.
Edward Marsh Williams
Williams became a director of the New Zealand Banking Company, which was the first company formed in New Zealand and which was established on 1 September 1840 at Kororareka in the Bay of Islands with about £7,000 of capital. Williams was appointed by Hobson as government interpreter, clerk to the court and the first postmaster at Auckland He was with the first party of officials at the founding of Auckland on 18 September 1840, which had been designated as the capital of New Zealand. Edward held these positions until 1842, when he retired to manage the family property at Pakaraka. In February 1843, Williams married Jane Davis, daughter of Richard Davis who was a member of the CMS Mission. Williams and his wife taught at Te Waimate mission until 1846, then farmed at Awatona, near Pakaraka.