166 HOW TO LEGISLATE [PART I. 



strives to outdo his neighbour in the accumulation 

 of worldly treasures, often setting aside all other 

 considerations, the missionaries should have endea- 

 voured to counteract this tendency, by confining 

 themselves to their proper sphere as civilizers and 

 instructors, especially as, in opposition to other 

 Europeans, they professed themselves imbued with 

 the highest Christian principles of humility and dis- 

 interestedness. They ought to have expected that 

 to be seen foremost in mercantile pursuits would 

 diminish their credit with the natives, and put a 

 weapon into the hands of their adversaries. No- 

 body would have grudged them or their children 

 the possession of as much land as they could possi- 

 bly have required for their own use ; but the belief 

 prevalent in Europe, that the missionaries cultivate 

 the chief part of the land which they possess, is very 

 erroneous; I do not believe that more than sixty 

 acres are in cultivation by missionaries or their 

 sons in the whole of New Zealand ; and as that 

 country is not a pastoral, but purely an agricultural 

 one, the quantity of land which they have claimed, 

 as being requisite for the support of their families, 

 is infinitely too large. Eleven missionaries, the only 

 ones who had given in their claims to the land com- 

 missioners when I left New Zealand, demanded 

 96,219 acres ! and four others had not yet sub- 

 mitted their claims, which I doubt not will be 

 equally large. Some of these persons are now re- 

 tiring on their property, and their sons have become 



