e majority of these people never having so
much as heard of the bargain. The settlers talked of starting for South
America and forming a colony in Chili, but more kept on coming, so that
they had not ships enough to take them across. And, besides, they had
paid a pound an acre to the company and demanded their land. Colonel
Wakefield went off to Auckland to talk the matter over with Governor
Hobson, who left the difficulty to be settled by his superior, Governor
Gipps, at Sydney.

Wakefield then went to Sydney to see Governor Gipps, who said that the
whole thing was irregular, but that he would allow the settlers to
occupy the land, supposing that every Maori who had a proper claim to
any part of it got due compensation, and if twenty acres of the central
part of Wellington were reserved for public buildings. These conditions
Wakefield agreed to, and, very glad to have got out of a serious
difficulty, he returned with the good tidings. Shortly afterwards
Governor Hobson himself visited Wellington, but was very coldly received
by the settlers there.

In the next two years 350 ships arrived at Wellington, bringing out over
4,000 settlers. Of these about 1,000 went up into the valleys and made
farms; but 3,000 stayed in and around Wellington, which then grew to be
a substantial little town, with four good piers, about 200 houses of
wood or brick and about 250 houses of more slender construction. More
than 200 Maoris could be seen in its streets clad in the European
clothes given as payment for the land. In all there were about 700
Maoris in the district, and for their use the company set apart 11,000
acres of farm lands, and 110 acres in the town. Roads were being made
into the fertile valleys, where eight or ten thousand acres were
occupied as farms and being rapidly cleared and tilled. Parties were
organised to go exploring across the mountains. They brought back word
that inland the soil was splendid, sometimes covered with forests,
sometimes with meadows of long grass or New Zealand flax, but always
watered by beautiful rivers and under a lovely climate. The Maoris were
everywhere friendly throughout their journey.

#10. Taranaki.#--In the beginning of the year 1840, an emigration society
had been formed in the south-west of England to enable the farm
labourers and miners of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset to settle in less
crowded lands. The Earl of Devon was its president, and Plymouth its
headquarters. They chose N