Chap. VII. FLOOD— THE " CUBA." 211 
This constitution was taken on board the fleet of 
emigrant ships, when preparing to sail from the 
Thames, by some of the directors of the Company; 
and the adhesion of the whole colony was obtained to 
its enforcement. The parchment original was for- 
warded in one of the ships to Colonel Wakefield, who 
had been declared the first leader of the Provisional 
Government. It was in accordance with this agree- 
ment that the first meeting of the Committee took 
place, in a wooden frame house belonging to Captain 
Smith, which was then situated in the sand-hum- 
mocks about half a mile east of Pitone, on the 2nd of 
March 1840. Nothing could, however, be done be- 
yond preparatory measures for obtaining the sanction 
of the chiefs, many members of the Committee being 
yet absent. " '- •• ....'' 
A report was brought, just at*dusk on the same day, 
that the Hutt was overflowing its banks in many 
places ; and we started in Barrett's boat to ascend 
the river in order to give assistance. The attempt 
proved ineffectual, owing to the force of the cur- 
rent swollen by the rains. In the morning, Colonel 
Wakefield went up the valley, and found that many 
of the reports had much exaggerated the real state of 
things. There had been, however, as much as eight 
inches of water in some of the houses on the river- 
bank. 
In the afternoon, the Cuba arrived from Kawia, 
and anchored in Lambton Harbour, as a strong south- 
east gale was blowing, which made the roadstead at 
Pitone inconvenient. Mr. Richard Davies Hanson 
had arrived in the Cuba from England, with the ap- 
pointment of Agent of the New Zealand Land Com- 
pany for the purchase of lands : it being supposed that 
he might effect a good deal necessarily left undone by 
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