[wideawake]

That’s completely wrong, Woodman. New Zealand began as part of NSW and was completely ungoverned for the first 50 years of its existence as a British territory. There were no penal colonies or British military presence at all, just communities of whalers and other sailors. It was not until 1832 that the British government had any presence on the islands and not until the 1850s that there was any permanent military presence. Organized colonial activity began with the New Zealand Company and 9000 paying colonists who freely emigrated, and founded four free colonies starting in 1842. Penal transportation was abolished in 1868, had not been used on a mass scale since 1850 and was never a part of NZ life.

[Woodman]

It wasn't a direct part of New Zealand life because the convicts sent to New Zealand and Tasmania were considered Hard Core and were incarcerated. I understand that there were free colonies in New Zealand and I was going from memory from my Australian History classes (many years ago). I'm unsure percentages of population, but in the early British era there were hard core criminals and military running the prisons on NZ.

[Woodman]

WideAwake, I did some further research, and I realized I am wrong. I think I mixed up in my head what was going on in Norfolk Island with NZ because of the way they were both administered from New South Wales. I could of sworn that there was a settlement like Port Arthur Tasmania in NZ, but it must be Norfolk Island I remember from my Australian History classes.