Chap. XIV. NEGOTIATION WITH MR. CLARKE JUNIOR. 355 
proceedings, must necessarily produce very dire effects 
on the condition of the few capitalists already there. 
Even at Taranaki there were a number of labourers 
employed by the Company until they could suit them- 
selves with another master ; and the reduction of their 
wages was likely to create much excitement and dis- 
content. 
Thus things seemed to be taking a more unfavourable 
turn than ever when I departed from New Plymouth 
to return by the coast to Tf^anganiii. 
Colonel Wakefield had postponed the continuation 
of the arbitration for award until he might hear the 
result of the negotiations in England. The Directors 
had placed at his disposal 500/. and 1000 acres of land 
for satisfying the natives for such reasonably disputed 
lands as they might be willing to alienate. But Mr. 
Clarke junior had begun by demanding 1000 guineas 
as compensation for the waste and unoccupied lands of 
the natives of the three pas in the town alone, amount- 
ing to perhaps 3000 or 4000 acres, which they hardly dis- 
puted with the settlers. This was when Colonel \^^ake- 
field had asked him in March, before leaving \^^ellington 
for New Plymouth, to " determine upon one proposal, 
" to include all claims for the Port Nicholson district, 
" if there were any beyond those he had advanced, and 
" upon such terms as would leave no question as to 
" the surrender of the pas and cultivations required for 
" the settlement, so soon as the natives could be rea- 
" sonably expected to leave them." 
Before Colonel Wakefield received any answer from 
Mr. Clarke junior to this new proposal, he received, 
on his return from New Plymouth, the news from 
England which I have mentioned, and wrote to Mr. 
Spain on the 24th of May to explain why he was 
compelled to await further orders from the Directors. 
2 a2 
