Chap. XVUI. COMPANY'S MODIFIED AGREEMENT. 473 
waiting to hear more news from the country of his 
birth. 
It appeared that the Company had at length been 
forced to terminate their ineffectual efforts to obtain a 
fair fulfilment of the original agreement, by accepting 
a compromise from Lord Stanley. This was, that 
they should receive a conditional prima facie grant of 
the lands to which they were entitled immediately on 
the arrival of the new Governor ; reserving always the 
rights of the natives, which the Governor was, how- 
ever, bound to define without delay, in a final and con- 
clusive manner. A separate Judge of the Supreme 
Court was to be appointed for Cook's Strait ; and Mr. 
Chapman, who had received the appointment, was to 
accompany the Governor. His Excellency was also to 
have the power of appointing a Resident at Wellington, 
with somewhat extended powers, for the Cook's Strait 
settlements. Another provision was, that the Company 
should exchange their claim to land in the Strait, to 
the extent of 50,000 acres, for 50,000/. worth of land 
at Auckland and the neighbourhood ; which they were 
to buy, hold, and colonise, under certain conditions. 
Captain Fitzroy had been selected to carry out this 
modification of the original agreement, which had so 
long been treated as waste paper both in England and 
in the colony. The new^ Governor had been engaged 
in long and intimate communication with the Directors 
of the Company ; and they expressed a high sense of 
his honourable character and intentions, and their con- 
viction that he would carry out the modified agreement 
most beneficially for the settlers, and in the frank 
spirit of instructions from the Colonial Office, of which 
the contents were made known to the Directors, and 
of which they perfectly approved. The Company, 
under the faith of this mutual reconciliation, had re- 
