266 EEPOET — 1891. 



and Waitemata Land Company, whose head-quarters were in 

 Scotland. This gentleman was somewhat of an explorer, and 

 it was due to his advice and representations made to his friend 

 Governor Hobson that the site on the banks of the Waitemata 

 was selected for Auckland as the seat of Government. He 

 was accidentally drowned in the Manukau three weeks after 

 the arrival of the "Brilliant" in that harbour, the first ship 

 which had ever entered it, and the first emigrant ship sent out 

 by his Scotch company. 



Dr. Dieffenbach had for some time been dissatisfied in his 

 relations with the New Zealand Company. He considered 

 that he was hampered in his researches, which were not faith- 

 fully reported by them, and that he was expected to present 

 that view alone which was acceptable and favourable to the 

 company. He accordingly applied to Captain Hobson for em- 

 ployment inider the Government, to prosecute scientific observa- 

 tions and research through the Islands of New Zealand. The 

 public purse was however too tight to permit the acceptance 

 of this offer, and he returned to England in 1842, where he 

 published his travels. 



In January, 1840, the " Cuba " arrived with the survey 

 staff on board, consisting of Captain William Mein Smith, of 

 the Eoyal Artillery, the Surveyor-General ; Messrs. Stokes, 

 Park, and Carrington, assistant surveyors; and tw^enty-two men. 



It may here be said that later Captain Smith became a 

 runholder in the Wairarapa in partnership with Mr. S. Eevans, 

 editor of the first paper published in New Zealand. Mr. Stokes 

 afterwards edited the Wellington Spectator and Cook Straits 

 Guardian. Mr. Park, vrho recently died in Christchurch, long 

 continued in the service of the company, performing many of 

 the earlier important surveys ; and Mr. Carrington, who died 

 last year, joined his brother in New Plymouth as a surveyor. 



Operations commenced without delay, and, after the press- 

 ing work of the town sections had been taken in hand, ex- 

 plorations into the interior were vigorously prosecuted. In 

 midwinter of 1840 Dr. Dieffenbach with Mr. Deans and a 

 small party pushed their way up the Eritonga, or Hutt Valley, 

 a distance of fifty miles, until they reached the lower hills of 

 the Tararua Eange, whose snow-covered summits were plainly 

 seen. Dr. Dieffenbach got a glimpse of what were afterwards, 

 known as the Wairarapa plains, and he had no doubt but that 

 a practicable road could be made through in this direction to 

 Hawke's Bay. His party was absent from Britannia, as Wel- 

 lington was then called, sixteen days. This Mr. William Deans 

 was a most enterprising settler who came out from Kilmarnock in 

 the first immigrant ship, the " Aurora." Wearied of the endless 

 worry which he and his fellow-settlers suffered in their efforts 

 to gain possession of their land-titles, he quitted Welhngton in 



