1809 in New Zealand
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Foveaux Strait is the centre of attention for sealing ships. Sealing gangs are dropped along the coast from southern Fiordland to Otago Harbour and on Stewart Island/Rakiura. The Bay of Islands is sometimes on the journey to or from Port Jackson. The Chatham Islands are also visited. A few whalers also operate around New Zealand; some also collect timber from Bay of Islands.
In November the Boyd massacre occurs in Whangaroa Harbour. It is precipitated by ill-treatment of a Māori crew member. There are only four survivors and the ship is later accidentally set on fire. It takes several months for all vessels operating around New Zealand to hear what has happened and through confusion and misrepresentation the wrong chief is blamed.
Māori are taken on as crew or passengers on various vessels that travel throughout the Pacific and also to England.
The colony of New South Wales encompasses New Zealand from 1788 to 1840. Therefore, the head of state is the monarch of the United Kingdom, represented by the Governor of New South Wales. However, British sovereignty was not established over New Zealand per se until 1840, at which point the Treaty of Waitangi retroactively recognised that it had been an independent territory until then. Furthermore, the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand signed by a number of Maori chiefs in 1835 was formally recognised by the British government at the time, indicating that British sovereignty did not yet extend to New Zealand.
Late 1808 or early this year the Unity, Captain Daniel Cooper, is probably the first identifiable European ship to visit Otago Harbour. For a while the harbour is called 'Port Daniel' by visiting sealers. Hooper's Inlet, on the seaward side of the Otago Peninsula is named for the Unity's First Officer Charles Hooper.
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