156 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VI. 
on his own private account for two seasons. It now 
turned out that he had drawn to a large amount on 
the Company in England from the Chatham Islands 
direct, without instructing the Principal Agent of what 
he had done, or having any authority to do so ; as his 
agency was only to accrue by percentage on the re-sale 
by the Company of the lands which they might acquire 
through his exertions. Colonel \\'^akefield had of 
course reported to his employers at home that he was 
kept in the dark as to Mr. Hanson's proceedings, and 
had thus acquired that gentleman's personal enmity. 
And when news came that the Company had disho- 
noured Mr. Hanson's bills, the Crown Prosecutor glo- 
ried in having kept the deeds as security for his being 
seen harmless through the affair. 
When Mr. Hanson had been degraded to a place 
under the Government, with a sufficient salary, he found 
it very easy to serve two purposes at once. Mobile he 
vented his spite on his old employers, to whom he had 
behaved so ill, he mainl} advanced the designs and 
actively earned the pay of his new masters. The misery 
which he helped to entail on his fellow-settlers ap- 
peared to be of no importance whatever in his thoughts. 
I need hardly say that he has continued to be, and is 
still, a worthy servant of the local Government in 
New Zealand. 
I can imagine no position more despicable and 
wretched than that of one of the original settlers, who, 
having once fairly caught the " Government fever," has 
to perform his unthankful office among his former as- 
sociates. Perfectly acquiring the haughty repulsiveness 
of the troop which he has joined, he is doomed to lose 
the friendship and often even the very acquaintance of 
those who knew him and esteemed him in England, 
and were once partners with him in the noble work of 
