198 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
for New Plymouth, having been appointed by Colonel 
\^^akefield to succeed Captain Liardet as Company's 
Agent there. 
^*- On the 13th, a brother of Mr. John Came Bidwill 
brought down a ship-load of sheej), cattle, and horses, 
from Sydney. The latter were principally brood- 
mares of the best New South Wales blood, which Mr. 
Molesworth and two or three other of the wealthier 
settlers had commissioned JMr. Bidwill to procure for 
them in that country. By this opportunity we heard 
of the arrival of the Bishop of New Zealand and his 
ecclesiastical train at Sydney. 
On the 16th of May, the Commissioner, Mr. Spain, 
opened his Court. 
'J'he proceedings of the first three weeks in this 
Court at once showed to every intelligent person that 
the inquiry was taking a course most mischievous to 
the colonists and to the natives. 
During the visit of Governor Hobson to this settle- 
ment. Colonel Wakefield had failed to obtain from 
him an unqualified fulfilment of the conditions of the 
agreement between the Government at home and the 
Company. Had that agreement been fully carried 
out, a Crown title would have been at once issued to 
the (.'ompany to the amount of land to which they 
were entitled by their expenditure on the population 
and survey of the country, and their Agent w^ould have 
selected the land so granted in the districts which the 
Company claimed to have purchased from the natives, 
A subsequent inquiry into the validity of these pur- 
chases, by a Court of Equity and Conscience, would 
have established the cases in which further compensa- 
tion might possibly be due; and also the extent of 
land over and above the quantity assigned to the Com- 
|»any out of their purchases, which would revert to 
