The flag-raising ceremony on 18 September 1840, establishing Auckland as Hobson's chosen capital, has been - and still is - surprisingly little known. Writer Tessa Duder argues that a significant reason for this is contemporary writers' and subsequent historians' neglect of female contributions and observations.
Yet as the only European woman of any education present on 18 September and during the capital's early struggles, Sarah Mathew (wife of better-known Felton Mathew) left us important journals and letters, including the only on-the-spot account of the 18 September ceremony. These, plus writings by John Logan Campbell and Charles Terry, show how dependent were the earliest Aucklanders on Māori goodwill, and how quickly the capital became a port for a thriving southern Pacific trade.
