4im ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND Chap. XV. 
CHAPTER XV. 
News from the North — Selection of Capital — H. M. S. Favourite — 
Secret calumnies against Port Nicholson — Abstraction of labour- 
ers by Government — The burlesque foundation of Auckland — 
Mr. Felton Mathew's epaulettes — Sawyers' activity — Absence of 
Police Magistrate — News from England — New Zealand Church 
Society — Wool — The name of the town changed to " Welling- 
" ton" — Return of the deputation from Sydney — Concessions made 
by Sir George Gipps — Ill-humour of Captain Hobson — The 
Rev. Mr. Churton — Flour-ships from Valparaiso — Health officer 
appointed — Harbour-master paid by the Company — Preliminary 
expedition of tlie Plymouth Company — Lord Eliot advocates the 
cause of New Zealand in the House of Commons — Grief for the 
death of Xord Durham — Statesmen and colonists — Abstraction 
of labour for neighbouring colonies — Plain of the Wairarapa — 
Arrival of a Wesleyan missionary — Christmas at Kapiti — Plunder 
ofa wreck near Wanganui — Ascent of the Wanganui — Rapids 
— Canoe- song — E Kuru and his guests — Open house at Wan- 
ganui — A feudal retinue — Gale of wind — Drift out to sea — 
Roman Catholic Bishop — A " happy new year" — Hopes and fears 
— Merry disputes between higher and lower classes — Anniversary 
fete — Injudicious missionary injunctions. 
A SCHOONER had arrived, soon after we left Port Nichol- 
son in the Jane, from Launceston, the Bay of Islands, 
and the Thames. The report was, that the Lieutenant- 
Governor intended shortly to visit the future site of his 
Capital, an uninhabited place called IVaitemata in the 
Frith of the Thames, in her Majesty's ship Favourite, 
then lying at the Bay ; and that he would afterwards 
come on from *' Auckland," as he had christened it, to 
us. But on the 5th of November, the Favourite ar- 
rived in the harbour, having been eleven days from Auck- 
land, without his Excellency, who had remained there 
with his suite and hangers-on, who now swelled the total 
