Hamilton History Talk: An Empire of Plants? Chinese plants, Asian/European trade, and Aotearoa New Zealand, 1790s-1880s

Associate Professor James Beattie, Victoria University of Wellington; Research Associate, Environmental Research Institute, University of Waikato/Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Date: 14 June  

Time: 6.00 p.m.                       

Venue: Chartwell Room, Hamilton Gardens         

Entry: $5

 “Our King at Kew & the Emperor of China at Jehol solace themselves under the shade of the same trees & admire the elegance of many of the same flowers in their respective gardens.”

Joseph Banks to Sir George Staunton, Letter, January 1796[¹]

Both the British Empire and the Chinese Empire were as much empires of plants as they were empires of conquest. For Joseph Banks, planting-hunting and empire-making were closely interlinked objectives which he eagerly promoted. In light of Banks’ activities and statement above about the availability of Chinese plants in Britain, this talk examines some of the manner in which imperial connections between China, India, Britain, Australia and New Zealand reveal lesser known histories of plant introductions from Asia—and particularly China—into New Zealand from the 1830s. I will focus on two groups of people who introduced Asian plants into New Zealand: the first, typified by former East India Company trader Thomas McDonnell, who settled in the Hokianga in 1830, and—the second group—comprising Cantonese migrants and gardeners, such as Dunedin flower-lover Wong Koo, who came to New Zealand from the mid-1860s.

Keywords: empire, botany, trade, Cantonese migrants, East India Company, imperialism, plant hunting

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[₁] Ray Desmond, Kew: The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens, London, 1995, p. 98.