HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1007 



writhing under the attacks of anonymous writers, and irritated by the petition that had 

 been sent to England for his recall, he wrote to the Secretary of State in May, 1841 : 

 " Had I been base enough to prefer my own comfort to what I believed to be the 

 public benefit, I could have established myself at Port Nicholson, when, surrounded by 

 a compact society all identified with the place, I might have left it to the Company's 

 agents or their Press to answer any censure which might flow in upon me from any 

 quarter. Or, had I been still more base, and kept in view my pecuniary advantage, 

 there could have been no scheme devised 

 better calculated to ensure my fortune and 

 that of my friends than presented itself at Port 

 Nicholson. I needed but to have speculated 

 largely in the Company's shares, and having 

 raised their value by the location of Govern- 

 ment, to have sold off my interest while they 

 preserved their artificial value." The reply was 

 a conclusive one. 



Two other incidents in the Governorship 

 of Captain Hobson are especially worthy of 

 note. The French frigate L'Aitbc had reached 

 the Bay of Islands before the Comtc dc Paris 

 had arrived with the immigrants intended to 

 be placed at Akaroa. Suspecting the captain of 

 the frigate of cherishing designs on the Middle 

 Island inimical to British interests, the Governor 

 sent H.M.S. Britoinart to Banks Peninsula, 



i 



directing the commander to proceed thither with all dispatch, so that before the 

 arrival of the LAubc or the Comte dc Paris possession might be taken. 



BRITISH INSTITUTIONS. 



A Charter for establishing in the colony of New Zealand a Legislative and an 

 Executive Council, and for granting certain powers and authority to the Governor, was 

 signed by the Queen on the i6th of November, 1840, and published in the colony on 

 the 3rd of May, 1841. The Letters Patent described the new colony as consisting of the 

 group of islands lying between thirty-four degrees thirty minutes and forty-seven degrees 

 ten minutes south latitude, and one hundred and sixty-six degrees five minutes and one 

 hundred and seventy-nine degrees east longitude ; and declared that the three principal 

 islands known as the Northern, Middle, and Stewart's Islands should in future be desig- 

 nated New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster. 



The New Zealand Association, in 1837, pointed out the necessity for a bishop for 

 New Zealand, and the idea engaged the attention of the New Zealand Land Company ; 

 but early in 1841 the proposal was adopted on an extended and proper basis by the 

 Church of England, and a Colonial Bishoprics' Council was formed, which wisely chose 

 the Rev. Augustus Selwyn, curate at Windsor, for the office of the first Bishop of 

 New Zealand. He sailed by way of Sydney about the end of the year 1841, and 



BISHOP SELWYN. 



