Edward Gibbon Wakefield letters.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was born in London in 1796, and was educated at Westminster School and in Edinburgh. He served three years in prison for the abduction of an heiress, during which time he developed his theories of colonisation and wrote a book expounding them. He believed that land in the colonies should be sold at a fixed price rather than granted or sold very cheaply, and that the proceeds should be used to finance the emigration of labourers, especially young people, of both sexes in equal numbers. These ideas gained in popularity, and in 1829 Wakefield formed the Colonisation Society, which sent settlers to the Swan River in Australia. This scheme was not entirely successful, and Wakefield turned his attention to New Zealand.

The New Zealand Association was organised in 1837, and became a joint-stock company three years later. Wakefield was disappointed, however, when the British Government refused to entrust the entire business of colonisation in New Zealand to the Company.

He then concentrated on the founding of an Anglican settlement, and in 1848 the Canterbury Association was formed under the leadership of John Robert Godley and Lord Lyttelton.

Wakefield emigrated to New Zealand in 1853, and the next year was elected to the House of Representatives and the Wellington Provincial Council, but retired from both in 1855. He died in Wellington in 1862.