Skip to main content

Story: Non-fiction

An ideal settlement

Image
An ideal settlement

This lithograph of New Plymouth in 1843 by Emma Wicksteed was reproduced in Edward Jerningham Wakefield's Adventure in New Zealand (1845) and presented an idealised view of the New Zealand Company settlement, with the aim of attracting more immigrants. Wakefield's text was also intended to give a positive impression, but it went beyond this with its idiosyncratic and lively descriptions of places and people.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0011-09-1

by Emma Ancilla Wicksteed

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Alex Calder, Non-fiction – Frontier reports, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/43291/an-ideal-settlement (accessed 23 June 2026).

Story by Alex Calder, published 11 November 2013.