Chap. VII. DIFFERENCES AS TO SITE OF TOWN. 199 
already on shore a disposition to prefer Colonel Wake- 
field's first choice. : v j ' 
The site now under survey was found, as new lines 
were cut through its matted vegetation, to be in many 
places swampy, and much intersected by sluggish creeks, 
the land being so level as to want drainage. The dis- 
tance from the sea, too, seemed a great objection ; es- 
pecially as the river was only navigable at high water, 
and the anchorage was exposed to a strong sea from 
the heads when the wind was southerly, and the long, 
shoal beach was in that case lined by an inconvenient 
surf, which interfered with the dry landing of goods. 
At Thorndon, on the contrary, the anchorage was 
landlocked ; and the largest long-boats might run 
their noses on to a beach on which no surf could ever 
break, opposite the spot on which the town could be 
built. Looking forward to future times, it became 
evident that Lambton Harbour would become the seat 
of commerce by means of its natural capabilities ; and 
it was feared that the possessors of the few earliest 
choices of country sections of 100 acres each might 
become the sole land-owners of a successful rival to the 
town, and the town itself sink gradually into disuse. 
The question, however, was postponed until the whole 
of the land-owners representing the preliminary settle- 
ment of 1100 sections should have arrived to give their 
opinion.* 
I found the squatters on the Hutt no less busy and 
merry than their fellows on the beach. I met and 
welcomed two or three old friends whom I had not 
seen since I left England, and made several new ac- 
quaintances among the young capitalists who were 
* Excellent maps, from the surveys of Company's officers, of 
Port Nicholson and of Cook's Strait, are published by Smith and 
Elder, of Cornhill. 
