June 15, 1863
 
I have spent much time trying to think of what I can say to Edward Wakefield’s son to convince him to support my book. I know that he is about three years younger than I am, but I don’t really know anything else about him. I am quite excited about the idea of communicating with him directly - rather than the very indirect letters from his father to my father.

Here is a copy of the letter I finally sent off after many revisions.

Dear Mr. Wakefield,

I know you will not know who it is that is writing to you. I have been given your address by your aunt, Catherine Torlesse and she suggested you might be willing to correspond with me, to help me in the book that I am attempting to write about your father.

I should say, first of all, that my father was a friend of your fathers, and that they corresponded fairly frequently from the time of your father’s imprisonment, up til the time of my father’s death. Having read your father’s letters, I felt incumbent upon me the task of writing up the story of his life.

Your aunt feels that others will also be doing this task - those much more capable of it than I. However, I want to pursue my goal, and in order to do so, I need someone to provide me with the details of what happened to your father from the time of the last letter he wrote to my father in 1844. I have to admit, ashamedly that he did write in 1845, but my sister sent the letter back unopened as our father had died by then.

I thought perhaps it would be useful if I could write specific questions for you to answer - rather than expecting you to sit down and write about 13 years of a man’s life. So if you are willing to help me, this is what I need to know:

When did your father move to New Zealand, and what did he make of it when he got there?

Was he important in New Zealand - did he become an important man in his own right - rather than just be known for having organised some of the emigration? Your aunt said that streets and rivers were named after him, but I don’t know the details.

I know from having read the letters of my father that you were one of the first to settle in New Zealand, along with your Uncle William. It would be very interesting to me to know what it was like when you first got there, and whether you were pleased that you chose it as a place to live.

I will understand if you do not feel able to help me in my book.

Yours faithfully,

Margaret Forbes

Another letter from Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

"December 10, 1834

Dear Daniel,

I have finally managed to get somewhere with my ideas on ideal colonization. The South Australia Association has been founded, and Parliament has passed an act for founding a colony and managing it according to the principles that I have set down. Of course, they cannot use my name to promote my ideas. It is amazing how long after the event the problem of being in prison follows one.

I have spent time with a very famous person in my pursuit of my ideals - would you believe the Duke of Wellington? In my book, England and America, I described him as ‘ignorant and even illiterate.’ I am pleased that he has forgiven me as he was the one who persuaded the Parliament to pass the South Australia Colonisation Act.

Now land sales in Australia will finance the development of the area and encourage the best qualities of British society in the way it is colonized.

The colonists will fall into two groups; those who go as free settlers and those who are to be labourers and whose passage will be paid for from the sale of land. Those going will be men and women under the age of thirty, and be of good character and of sound mind and body.

I am rather worried about my daughter Nina. I think I may have told you before that she has suffered from a bad chest since way back in 1820 when she was only three years old and had whopping cough. She has been urging all the family to emigrate to Australia, and I think that country might serve her health better. My brother Felix and his family have already gone to Tasmania. William is also thinking of going there, taking his daughter to try a new life. He has not had the post-prison fortune that I have enjoyed.

Nina says she thinks Catharine’s husband should give up his ministry in Suffolk and their family should emigrate too. She quotes my books to all her friends and family - thinking it quite the perfect sort of life for just about everyone. I think she feels that if the whole family were to emigrate, it might convince me to go.

Isn’t it odd that for someone who has spent such a lot of his life arranging for others to go to that country, I have not got the urge to go myself? But perhaps I should not be selfish and do it for her sake and that of a united family.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from your friend,

Edward Gibbon”