Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796 1862) was a colonial advocate and political theorist, who was influential in the early colonisation of New Zealand and South Australia. Wakefield read widely on contemporary economics and social questions, and his theory of colonisation helped shape the British Empire. He formed the New Zealand Association in 1837 to create a new colony in that country, finally emigrating himself in 1852. His son, the editor of this volume of letters, was appointed secretary of the first settler expedition to New Zealand in 1839, and was elected political representative for...