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These ornate epaulettes were worn by Commander Willoughby Shortland of the Royal Navy, Administrator and Colonial Secretary of
Epaulettes were originally for keeping shoulder-belts in place, and gradually became signifiers of rank.
This extract originally appeared in Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024) on pages 41-42.
This extract was authored by Katie Cooper.
[This item is apart of] the surviving components of Lieutenant Willoughby Shortland’s dress uniform, which symbolise the arrival of the Crown colony regime in Aotearoa New Zealand. The uniform includes a beaver-skin bicorn hat with a silk ribbon cockade, silver trim, gold tassel and plume of cock’s feathers. The double-breasted coatee is made of a fine navy blue wool, with a stiff standing collar and cuffs of red cloth. Each of the 20 silver buttons depicts a crown surrounded by a laurel wreath, and the coat is ornamented with acorns and oak leaves worked in silver cord and sequins. The epaulettes have a leather and metal frame which has been covered with silver braid, and metal threads forming a crown and a crossed gold and silver sword and baton. Shortland would have worn this stately court dress for ceremonial occasions. For all the authority, pomp and circumstance conjured by this elaborate uniform, the extension of British law in New Zealand after 1840 was initially limited. Inadequate financing jeopardised the establishment of an effective administration and meant laws could only be enforced in and around Pākehā settlements.1 Māori remained in a sense provisional British subjects, and although some chiefs willingly allowed the government to intervene in certain matters, particularly disputes between Māori and settlers, compliance with British law had definite limits.2
1 Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi (Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2011), p. 110; Malcolm McKinnon, ‘Colonial and provincial government – The crown colony, 1840 to 1852’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (teara.govt.nz/en/colonial-and-provincial-government/page-1, accessed 21 August 2023).
2 Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, pp. 105, 110.