1002 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



whole or any portion of the Islands ; to induce the chiefs to contract that no lands 

 should in future be sold except to the Crown ; to announce by proclamation that no 

 title to land acquired from the natives of the dependency would be recognized except 

 confirmed by a Crown grant ; to arrange for the appointment of a Commission to 

 determine what lands held by British subjects had been lawfully acquired; and to 

 appoint a Protector to supervise the interests of the Maori population. 



But while the Colonial Office was making the arrangements described, Mr. Wakefield 

 was not idle. After the collapse of the Association of 1837, he had been with Lord 

 Durham to Canada, but returned with his chief to England and formed a NTew Zealand 

 Land Company, of which Lord Durham was Governor, and Mr. Joseph Somes Deputy- 

 Governor. The first paragraph in the prospectus of the Company declared its character, 

 and showed that it was not open to the objection made to the Association. It said : 

 " This Company has been formed for the purpose of employing capital in the purchase 

 and resale of lands in New Zealand, and the promotion of emigration to that country." 

 The capital was four hundred thousand pounds in four thousand shares of one hundred 

 pounds each, with a deposit of ten pounds per share. Rusden says : " A capital of one 

 hundred thousand pounds was paid up, and a hundred thousand acres of land in New 

 Zealand had been sold before a title to one had been acquired. They (the share- 

 holders who paid money) drew lots for sections unknown, of lands which the Company 

 was about to seek." 



The Tory, a vessel of four hundred tons burthen, was prepared to sail in April 

 with the first body of the Company's settlers, and letters of introduction were solicited 

 at the Colonial Office to Governors of colonies. The answer was that the Queen would 

 be advised to take measures to obtain by cession the sovereignty of the Islands, and 

 that no pledge could be given for the future recognition on the part of the Crown of 

 any titles to land which the Company or any other persons might obtain by grant or 

 by purchase from the natives. Nothing daunted, however, by this rebuff, the Tory 

 sailed in May, 1839, under the control of Mr. Wakefield's brother, Colonel \Yilliam 

 Wakefield, of the Spanish Legion. Two days after the departure of the Tory the 

 Directors announced to the Government that the Company was formed, and Lord 

 Normanby was informed that preparations for a very extensive emigration were in progress 

 in various parts of England and Scotland. 



The Tory, which carried an exploring staff and a cargo of " trade " for barter with 

 the New Zealanders, arrived at Queen Charlotte Sound after a rapid passage, at the 

 time, of ninety-six days ; and after wandering about Cook Strait on land-purchasing 

 expeditions, Colonel Wakefield, on the last day of September, 1839, took formal posses- 

 sion of Port Nicholson in the name of the Company, and the New Zealand Hag was 

 hoisted under a salute, on an immense staff erected for that purpose. Colonel Wakefield 

 reported to the Company that he had purchased a territory as large as Ireland, 

 extending from the thirty-eighth to the forty-third degree of south latitude on the west 

 coast, and from the forty-fourth to the forty-third degree of latitude on the east coast, 

 in exchange for goods valued at something less than nine thousand pounds. His purchase 

 embraced localities where the Company's settlements of Wellington, Nelson and New 

 Plymouth were subsequently formed. The interpreter of the Company was a man 



