Chap. XII. SELECTION OF TOWN-LANDS. 349 
Many of the original buyers in London had confided 
the task of selecting for them to agents among the 
colonists. The meeting for this purpose took place 
in a large unfinished wooden building, which Dr. 
Evans had brought out with him, and which Dicky 
Barrett had bought and erected on the beach for an 
hotel. A table was placed on that part of the ground- 
floor which was floored, to support the map of the 
town and the books of the principal selectors. The 
most interested or most querulous settlers were ga- 
thered round Mr. Hanson, Captain Smith and his 
assistants ; asking questions, raising difficulties or 
meeting them, and keeping an eye to some desired sec- 
tion ; while those who had but late choices, or others 
who were mere spectators, stood talking in the win- 
dows of the long room, or explored the skeleton upper 
story of the embryo hotel. On the 3 1st, some mistake 
was discovered in the plan ; and the further selection 
was consequently postponed to the 10th of August, 
and was not completed until the 14th. 
Ample reserves for public purposes appeared on the 
plan ; one acre was reserved for the Company," as a site 
for the immigration buildings, and the Native Reserves, 
consisting of one hundred sections of one acre each, were 
judiciously selected by Captain Smith. Among others, 
the section on which the hotel was building, which is 
of as great value as any in the town, fell to the lot of 
the natives. 
Two acres adjoining each other, and possessed of 
some of the best water-frontage, were also excluded 
from the general choice, in accordance with the 
arrangement made between the Rev. Henry Williams 
and Colonel Wakefield. This rather startling excep- 
tion was passed over, however, in silence by even the 
