PART ONE - DANIEL POLLEN A NE'ER DO WELL FROM
RINGSEND BECOMES THE PRIME MINISTER OF
NEW ZEALAND
PROLOGUE
In their book, ‘Touching
on Deaths: a medical history of early Auckland (2000)’, on page. 83 and
referring to "DANIEL POLLEN (1813–1896), Laurie Gluckman, Ann Gluckman and Mike Wagg wrote that,
‘Pollen
was born in Dublin although it is unknown whether he obtained his MD in Ireland
or the USA. Similarly, it is uncertain when he reached New Zealand, but he
signed the address of loyalty to Hobson at the Bay of Islands and witnessed the
signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He entered practice in Parnell, in Auckland
in 1841.’
According to the Irish
Stew Podcast,
‘Daniel
Pollen, the 9th Premier of New Zealand, was born in Ringsend in Dublin on the
2nd of June, 1812. Little is known of his early life until he arrived in New
South Wales in Australia in the 1830s before moving on to Auckland, New Zealand
in 1840.’
Political opponents questioned
his medical credentials, fictional accounts of his father helping to build the
US Capitol building and unfounded stories that Daniel Pollen spent time in the
United States when in fact he was tending to the medical needs of his native
Dublin.
HERE IS THE TRUE STORY OF
DANIEL POLLEN, THE IMMIGRANT WHO BECAME A MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER FROM RINGSEND.
PROLOGUE
In their book, ‘Touching
on Deaths: a medical history of early Auckland (2000)’, on page. 83 and
referring to "DANIEL POLLEN (1813–1896), Laurie Gluckman, Ann Gluckman and Mike Wagg wrote that,
‘Pollen
was born in Dublin although it is unknown whether he obtained his MD in Ireland
or the USA. Similarly, it is uncertain when he reached New Zealand, but he
signed the address of loyalty to Hobson at the Bay of Islands and witnessed the
signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. He entered practice in Parnell, in Auckland
in 1841.’
According to the Irish
Stew Podcast,
‘Daniel
Pollen, the 9th Premier of New Zealand, was born in Ringsend in Dublin on the
2nd of June, 1812. Little is known of his early life until he arrived in New
South Wales in Australia in the 1830s before moving on to Auckland, New Zealand
in 1840.’
Political opponents questioned
his medical credentials, fictional accounts of his father helping to build the
US Capitol building and unfounded stories that Daniel Pollen spent time in the
United States when in fact he was tending to the medical needs of his native
Dublin.
HERE IS THE TRUE STORY OF
DANIEL POLLEN, THE IMMIGRANT WHO BECAME A MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER FROM RINGSEND.
On St. Georges Day, Saturday April 23rd 1796, one hundred thousand Dubliners crammed onto the quays
around the newly built Grand Canal Harbour to view the official opening by John
Jeffreys Pratt, the Earl of Camden acting as the Lord Lieutenant in Ireland appointed
by King George the third. This would be the culmination of the building of the
Grand Canal that linked the River Shannon across Ireland to the River Liffey
and out into the Irish Sea. The section from Portobello to this new harbour,
the final link, had been completed and it was hoped that it would open both
trade and passenger services for those who could afford it. The owners of the
Grand Canal Company did not envisage the arrival of the railways less that
fifty years later than would make the Irish canals almost obsolete. The Earl’s
vessel sailed in from the River Liffey through one of the three locks, each one
named after a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Westmoreland, Buckingham and of
course Camden himself.
This is a painting of the
opening by William Ashford hanging in the National Gallery of Ireland depicting
the opening of the Locks.
And this is also a newspaper observation of the opening.
On the far side of the harbour the Lord Lieutenant’s ships enters through the lock into the harbour. But pay attention to the house with the smoke emanating from the chimney to the right of the ship. This was the home of the Grand Canal Company’s lock keeper and harbour master. The man appointed to the job was Hugh Pollen.
The house on the far side
of the locks was the location of the original home for Hugh Pollen.
Hugh Pollen married Eliza
O’Neill and they settled into a busy life in the harbour, looking after the
locks and the commercial activities of the harbour, Hugh Pollen also operated
small fishing boats and smacks that went out to the larger vessels in Dublin
Bay to off load their cargos and bring them ashore. In May 1813, Hugh and Eliza
had a son and Daniel Pollen was born. On June 3rd 1813, he was baptised in
Haddington Road Catholic Church.
And this is the church book entry for the baptism.
Daniel was still young as
the country recovered having been engulfed by the 1798 rebellion and shortly
afterwards by the Robert Emmet rebellion of 1803. The Act of Union abolished
the Irish Parliament and the British authorities took a stronger control of how
Ireland was governed.
Later in life he
described his early years in Dublin,
‘In
the closing years of the first quarter of this century, I was myself, as a boy,
fighting with tiny weapons amongst those of my countrymen who were struggling
for that freedom which they thought would be accomplished for them by what was
then known as Catholic Emancipation. I can remember, too, with what
determination I saved my pocket money how I stinted myself in the usual
luxuries of sugar-stick and gingerbread — in order that I might have the
delight, on the Sundays, of flinging the coppers that I had saved in the faces
of my oppressors when I made my weekly contribution to what was known — in the
vernacular of my country — as the ' rint '— ' the Catholic Rint.'
The Observer, 23rd
May 1861[1]
Young Daniel went to
Great Brunswick Street Select School for General Education. He then attended
medical school ar Apothecary Hall 40 Mary Street, not far from the main
thoroughfare of the city Sackville Street, later to be known as O’Connell
Street. The Hall was part of the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin. He continued
his studies in medicine and he qualified as an apothecary on September 17th
1833 having been examined by the Governor and Directors of the Apothecaries
Hall, Dublin. Webster’s dictionary defines an apothecary as,
‘One who prepares and sells drugs or compounds for medicinal purposes.
In more modern times it referred to a pharmacist.
The Apothecary Hall
records showing the qualification of Daniel Pollen September 17th
1833He then returned to his native Ringsend and Irishtown where the Thom’s Directory lists the young Daniel Pollen as a Druggist and Apothecary, the old way of describing him as a chemist. He practised serving the local community from a house that stood here.
1835 Thom's Directory
He lived just up the road
from his shop at Number 4 Tritonville Road but he found his work appearing the
newspapers on May 7th 1836 ‘Saunders Newsletter’.
Daniel was one of eight children born to Hugh and Eliza Pollen. Daniel born in 1813, Thomas in 1814, James in 1817, John in 1819, Henry in 1824, Anne Catherine in 1831 and finally Hugh in 1834. Just three years after the birth of his namesake, their father Hugh died in 1837 and was buried in the grounds of St. Matthews Church in Irishtown. The role of lock master was taken by his son Thomas who was born a year after Daniel.
In early 1839 he first
made his way to Sydney, Australia, which at that time would take between three
and four months to complete. On November 30th he left New South
Wales bound for the Bay of Islands on board The Martha.
According to the
Australasian Chronicle[2], Pollen travelled from
Australia to New Zealand with a group of French Catholic Missionaries including
Fr. Joseph Chevron who would continue onto Tonga to spread the gospel.
He would not be the only
Irishman to have an immediate impact on New Zealand life. From the south of England port Plymouth, the
Druid was being captained by John Spenser Churchill. He was the great
granduncle of Sir Winston Churchill, the future UK Prime Minister.
The Druid sailed on 25 August with Waterford born William Hobson and
his family on board, arriving at Port Jackson, Sydney on 24 December. Hobson
had already been to Australia and New Zealand some years earlier in command of
HMS Rattlesnake as tensions mounted between the British settlers and on the
North Island of New Zealand.
Hobson spent three weeks
in Sydney, became acquainted with his immediate superior, George Gipps, the
then governor of New South Wales, and selected his staff. Leaving his family
behind in Port Jackson, Hobson sailed on the Herald on 19 January 1840,
arriving at the Bay of Islands on 29 January. During the voyage he had heated
arguments with the captain, Joseph Nias, who was obstructive of Hobson,
apparently out of envy.
According to the New
Zealand Government website,
‘The
Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding document. It takes its name from
the place in the Bay of Islands where it was first signed, on 6 February 1840.
This day is now a public holiday in New Zealand. The Treaty is an agreement, in
Māori and English, that was made between the British Crown and about 540 Māori Rangatira
(chiefs).
Growing
numbers of British migrants arrived in New Zealand in the late 1830s, and there
were plans for extensive settlement. Around this time there were large-scale
land transactions with Māori, unruly behaviour by some settlers and signs that
the French were interested in annexing New Zealand. The British government was
initially unwilling to act, but it eventually realised that annexing the
country could protect Māori, regulate British subjects and secure commercial
interests.’
Lieutenant-Governor
William Hobson had the task of securing British sovereignty over New Zealand.
He relied on the advice and support of, among others, James Busby, the British
Resident in New Zealand. The Treaty was prepared in just a few days. Missionary
Henry Williams and his son Edward translated the English draft into Māori
overnight on 4 February. About 500 Māori debated the document for a day and a
night before it was signed on 6 February. Pollen was one of the witnesses to
the signing of the Treaty by the Māori leaders,
By May 1840, just months after his arrival this letter from Pollen appeared in the newspaper self-reporting that he witnessed the signing of the treaty.
Published
May 5th 1840.
With the treaty in place
and business in the new British colony beginning to expand, Pollen was one of
the merchants behind the creation of New Zealand’s first bank.
[3]
The
idea of a New Zealand-based bank was first raised in 1840s, and at a meeting in
the Bay of the Islands on
2 May 1840 the first offering of shares in New Zealand was launched. The bank
was established on September 1st 1840 at Kororareka in the Bay
of Islands with about £7,000 of capital. Half the shares were held
in Sydney and the other half by residents on the Bay of Islands. The manager
was Alex Kennedy and the first directors were Gilbert Mair, Edward Williams,
Henry Thomspon, James Reddy Clendon, Daniel Pollen, John Scott, William Mayew
and Philo Perry.
After
the move of the seat of government to Auckland a branch was set up in Auckland
in 1842. An attempt was also made to move the principal office to Auckland but
this was unhappily ineffectual.
The failure of the move decided the fate of the enterprise, and although it
struggled on it finally succumbed in 1845. The bank was wound up and all
liabilities to the public were paid, although the final capital was not
returned to shareholders until February 2nd 1850.
END OF PART ONE
In
Part Two, Daniel will find a wife, take a more active role in the politics of
New Zealand and for the boy from Ringsend, and reach the pinnacle of Kiwi
politics becoming Prime Minister.
SOURCES
THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT WEBSITE
IRISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES
THE BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES
THE PEMBROKE ESTATE ARCHIVES
THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND
THE NEW ZEALAND NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES
THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES
ANCESTRY.COM
GOOGLE EARTH
THE RINGSEND & DISTRICTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
THE IRISH INLAND WATERWAYS
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND
CORMAC LOUTH
