Check to Your King

by Robin Hyde

Baron de Thierry, self-styled King Pokeno of Hokianga, was surely New Zealand's most romantic coloniser. Part English, part French, Charles de Thierry trustingly bought 40,000 acres from the missionary Thomas Kendall and the two colourful chiefs he brought with him to meet the King of England.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Iris Guiver Wilkinson, better known as Robin Hyde, her chosen name as poet and writer, was born on 19 January 1906 in Cape Town, South Africa. She was the second daughter of Edith Ellinor (Nelly) Butler, an Australian nurse who on her way ‘Home’ had met and married George Edward Wilkinson, an Englishman working on the installation of a post and telegraph system in South Africa. When Iris was a month old the family sailed third-class in the Ruapehu for New Zealand.
Settling in Wellington, the Wilkinsons rented a series of dingy houses in Newtown, Melrose and Berhampore where two more daughters were born. The household was violently divided in its opinions, Iris’s mother enthusiastic for God and empire, bluebells and manners, her father immersed in books denouncing capitalism, imperialism and religion. The story of her early life is told in her autobiographical novel The godwits fly, and in a haunting sequence of poems in Houses by the sea, published after her death. She was a pupil at South Wellington School and Berhampore School, where she was dux in 1918. After her family’s move to the suburb of Northland she attended Wellington Girls’ College, where she made a lifelong friend, Gwen Hawthorn (later Mitcalfe). Although Iris wrote dismissively of her education there as stodgy and cold, she received encouragement for her writing. Many of her poems and stories appeared in the school magazine between 1919 and 1922.
At 17 the ‘Schoolgirl Poetess’ joined the staff of the Dominion, also working on the children’s page of the New Zealand Farmers’ Advocate. She had a love affair with one of her father’s protégés, Harry Sweetman, which was fictionalised in The godwits fly. They planned to go to Europe together, but at 18 she spent some months in hospital after a knee operation. She came out on crutches, lame for life, dependent on opiates for pain relief, to find that Harry had gone without her. She learned much later of his death shortly after his arrival in England.
Returning to work at the Dominion she wrote ‘Peeps at Parliament’ under the pen-name ‘Novitia’ during the election year of 1925. Although flippant (as at that time her age, sex and the editor dictated), the column touched on some serious social concerns. She met politicians William Downie Stewart, Daniel Sullivan and John A. Lee, who became lasting friends. A brief love affair while she was receiving treatment for her knee in Rotorua left her pregnant. In April 1926 she resigned from the Dominion and sailed for Sydney. Five bleak months there ended with the birth and death of a son. She gave him the name Robin Hyde, then borrowed it back from him, to use for her serious writing. On her return to New Zealand she had a nervous breakdown, and in 1927 spent some months in Queen Mary Hospital at Hanmer Springs.
Writing again, she had some poems published in newspapers. John Schroder, from the Christchurch Sun ’s literary pages, began a correspondence with her that lasted till her death. He became her literary adviser and friend. Back in Wellington she found only occasional work as a jobbing journalist. She joined New Zealand Truth in September 1928, then, after being sacked, with Schroder’s help she was appointed to assist Esther Glen with the women’s page of the Christchurch Sun. She was employed by the Wanganui Chronicle by March 1929. At each post she inserted controversial interviews or subversive comment into the society or shopping columns.
Her first collection of poetry, The desolate star, was published in 1929. Few copies sold. In Wanganui she became pregnant after a brief fling with a married journalist who suggested she pay half the cost of an abortion. ‘Well, I thought, you can’t say we haven’t got sex equality all right’. Hyde refused the abortion and took six months’ sick leave claiming ‘a dicky heart’. She lived near French Pass and later at Picton under an assumed name; her son, Derek Challis, was born in Octo

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5★

I'm trying to decide how I feel about this book - it certainly slowed down my reading pace (that & having the house reroofed - the sound of concrete tiles being removed & crashing to the ground made it hard to concentrate on anything!)

Robin Hyde is considered one of the greats in NZ literature. Born Iris Guiver Wilkinson, she was a free spirit, beautiful, bright & independent, sadly for her, she was born ahead of her time. Her bio on Goodreads is a c&p. It finishes abruptly (mid word!) in 1929 and she didn't commit suicide (aged only 33) until 1939. So much to try to fit in. I really should fix the Goodreads bio up.

Here is her Wikipedia bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hyde

In the beginning, I was surprised and charmed by the light, whimsical tone in the tale of the self styled Baron de Thierry, probably the most bat shit crazy err...eccentric of all of NZ's pioneers. Part English, part French, believed to be born in the Dutch republic, de Thierry tried to establish his own sovereign state in early 19th century New Zealand. Missionary Bruce Kendall and two Maori Chiefs did the equivalent of selling de Thierry the Brooklyn Bridge when they sold him 40,000 acres of land.

This picture of de Thierry when young and idealistic. I like the way he is shown surrounded by clouds. It does seem very appropriate. Later pictures show him as looking old and disillusioned. He ended his days as a piano teacher in Auckland.

This is a very short summary of de Thierry's life. Believe me, there is a lot more to it than that.

Like I said, I was charmed in the beginning. The style reminded me of Nancy Mitford's Madame de Pompadour which was written around twenty years later. Unlike Mitford's book (which really draws the reader in) in parts I really struggled with this book, which veered between being a history and historical fiction. It is only 288 pages long, but it took me a month to complete.

I want to read more Hyde, but I may continue with her most famous novel, The Godwits Fly just to make sure her style is for me.

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[Marie Greaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a most unusual book!
I found the manner of writing rather strange in the beginning, but I’m glad I persevered as I soon became used to it. The story was intriguing! It’s a part of New Zealand’s history that I was quite unaware of, although I had heard the name of Charles de Thierry previously. Most New Zealanders know that Akaroa was very nearly the beginning of French colonisation throughout the whole of the country, but how many knew that another Frenchman claimed the title of Sovereign Chief - and was so addressed – in the Hokianga? His vision for New Zealand was so different from that of Britain, for he saw the Maori as equals to his own settlers and planned a settlement that would uphold rather than try and annihilate them. Named King Pokeno by the Maori, his superior manner was his greatest barrier to gaining the trust and fellowship of those he wished to befriend. The Treaty between British and Maori ended his dream.
He wrote sadly following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (at which he was present) “An aboriginal people saved… A marvellous consummation. A native race protected and perpetuated, brought forward instead of being driven back into the wilderness, and a people taught to love the God that permitted these things, instead of trembling at the denunciations of the missionaries. It might have been. Poor doomed, poor devoted people. But England is mistress here, and fate has sounded their funeral knell. Where they might have been taught to command they must be content now to obey: and where in ages to come they would have shone and reflected glory and light upon their country, they must hang their heads in servile despondency, and grope their way in darkness.“