Criminal Sittings – Rape in the Colony, New Zealand, 1862 MICHELLE ERAI 1 Abstract In 1862 His Honor, Justice Johnston, issued his instructions to the jury of the New Zealand Supreme Court for two simultaneous rape trials – the alleged rape of a European woman by two Ma ¯ori men, and an alleged “assault with intent to commit a rape” of a Ma ¯ori woman by a European man. This article argues that those instructions should be read within an historiographical critique of British colonial expansion, print capitalism and violence. Drawing on feminist postcolonial theorizing the question posed here, is, “What is the historical, ideological context for a newspaper reporting of the possible rape of a Ma ¯ori woman in 1862? ***** Gustavus von Tempsky’s sketch for the cover of The Wellington Punch is a useful introduction to a colonial history of violence 1 Michelle Erai is Assistant Professor in Women’s Studies, at UC Los Angeles. Figure 1: von Tempsky, Gustavus Ferdinand, “The Wellington Punch, 1867.” 1 Journal of Historical Sociology Vol. 24 No. 2 June 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2011.01395.x © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.