Chap. III. PRIVATE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS. 79 
" and Mr. Felton Mathew,* and Mr. D. Johnson,t 
" purchased a large tract of country, in the Frith of 
" the Thames, from Mr. Webster, for which they gave 
" a bill of 1000/. Sir George Gipps, Governor of New 
" South Wales, heard of the transaction, and severely 
" reprimanded them ; they were nevertheless allowed 
" to keep the land." 
The Colonial Secretary and the Chief Protector of 
Aborigines both held allotments of land in the most 
valuable part of the town of Auckland, as their share 
of the job so ably exposed by Mr. Dudley Sinclair, and 
so severely reproved by Sir George Gipps. Mr. Clarke, 
not behind the rest of the resident missionaries, laid 
claim to 5500 acres in the northern part of the island, 
and has since obtained a Crown grant of them. 
Surely it was to the interest of these two officers, if 
they really had any influence over the Governor, to 
oppose the establishment of the Government at a place 
where all the land not required for public purposes was 
already appropriated, and rather to retain the Governor 
by all possible means in a district where the spirit of 
land-jobbing could at once obtain 21,000/. for 26 acres 
of a proposed town. 
* Surveyor-General of New Zealand, who reported officially in 
favour of the Thames as the site of the capital, at the same time 
that Lieutenant Shortland furnished an unfavourable account of 
Port Nicholson. 
t Also a Government employe. 
