449 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVII. 
letter of the thirteen chiefs to William the Fourth ; 
and he was present at a monster land-purchase, 30 or 
40 miles long, made by Mr. Fairburn, one of the 
catechists. He also tells us of land bought by 
Davis, Kemp, Baker, Clarke, King, and Henry Wil- 
liams the Chairman of the Mission. The latter alone 
had purchased one tract of seven square miles. 
Twenty-six members of the Church Mission actually 
claimed before the L^nd Claims Commissioners, in 1840, 
185,233* acres of land, which were alleged to have 
been bought from the natives between 1832 and 1840. 
They received an award, in May 1843, of 45, 179 acres. 
But the disallowance of one Land Claims Bill and 
the revival of the other rendered a revisal of the award 
necessary. Twenty out of the twenty-six cases were 
revised, and the twenty claimants received a final grant 
of 27,280 acres. The six not yet revised contained some 
of the largest claims, such as that of Mr. Fairburn for 
40,000 acres, and that of the Rev. Richard Taylor (now 
of TVanganui), for 50,000 acres. Among these twenty- 
six claimants, the Rev. Henry Williams, the Chairman 
of the Church Mission, appears for nearly 11,000 acres, 
and Mr. George Clarke, now Chief Protector of the 
Aborigines, and lay Agent of the Society in New Zea- 
land for 5500 acres, f 
With but few honourable exceptions, such as that 
of Mr. Hadfield, who does not, I believe, claim a 
* This is oyer and above 11,607 acres claimed for the Church 
Missionary Society. 
t By some further change in the laws relating to land-claims, 
made by the present Governor Captain Fitzroy, nearly all these 
large claims have been acceded to in full ; and the most recent 
New Zealand Government Gazettes contain official announcements 
that the Crown grants for the full amount lie at the Land Office. 
Among the new grants thus announced, are those of Mr. Clarke, 
Mr. Fairburn, the Rev. Henry Williams, and the Rev. Richard 
Taylor, to the age^eg-ate amount of more than 100,000 acres. 
