Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796–1862) was a controversial colonial advocate and political theorist, who was the driving force behind the early colonization of New Zealand and South Australia. Barred from entering parliament after serving a three-year sentence in Newgate Prison, Wakefield read widely on contemporary economic and social questions before forming the New Zealand Association in 1837, with the aim of creating a colony in the country based on his theories of systemic colonization. This volume, first published in 1839, contains a detailed description of the New Zealand Association's plans for the formation of a British colony in the country. Published to attract new members and potential colonists to the Association, this volume discusses the natural resources of New Zealand and describes the Association's method of colonisation together with a proposed system of government, providing a valuable practical example of Wakefield's influential theories of colonization.
