Artwork Information

This view is remarkable as much for what it records, as how it is recorded. It is one of the early illustrations of settler and missionary communities, in this instance the settlement recorded is Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Pahia was founded as a European township only 4 years before de Sainson drew it on 12 March 1827.

Above the missionaries' compound a flag flies. In the watercolour, upon which this lithograph is based, the markings of the Union Jack are indicated on the flag, noteworthy given the French interest at the time in also colonising New Zealand. Māori dwellings are indicated behind a fence close to the shore and men can be seen pulling up a boat. Three well-dressed figures in the foreground, presumably settlers given the inclusion of a child, turn away from the vista.