1843, and found the colony in a
state of great depression, the public treasury being not only empty but
in debt. For many officials had been appointed, judges, magistrates,
policemen, customs receivers and so on; and to pay the salaries of these
every one had relied on the continued sale of land.

But in 1841 there had come out the first Land Commissioner, William
Spain, who began to inquire into the disputes about land which had
arisen between white men and Maoris. Out of every ten acres the white
men said they had bought he allowed them to keep only one. This was but
fair to the Maoris, who had been induced very often to make most foolish
bargains; but the settlers ceased to buy land when they were not certain
of keeping it. Hence the land sales stopped; the Governor owed L20,000
more than he could pay, and so he was confronted with troubles from his
very first arrival.

#2. Wairau Massacre.#--Just before he came an incident had happened which
deepened the trouble of the colony. At the north of the South Island,
not far from Nelson, there was a fine valley watered by the stream
Wairau, which Colonel Wakefield claimed, alleging that it was part of
the land he had bought with the Nelson district. Rauparaha and his
son-in-law, Rangihaeata, claimed it by right of conquest, and they had a
couple of hundred stout warriors at their back, all well armed with
muskets. Mr. Spain sent word that he was coming to settle the dispute,
but, in spite of that, Captain Wakefield sent surveyors to measure out
the land for occupation by the settlers. The surveyors were turned off
by Rauparaha, who carried their instruments and other property carefully
off the land and then burnt the huts they had put up. The Maoris did no
violence, and were courteous though determined. The surveyors returned
to Nelson, and Captain Wakefield induced the local magistrates to issue
a warrant for the arrest of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata. To execute this
warrant Mr. Thompson, the police magistrate, himself went in a small
vessel, and with him went Captain Wakefield, seven other gentlemen, and
forty labourers, in all a party of forty-nine, of whom thirty-five were
armed with guns.

When they landed at the mouth of the Wairau River, Piraha, a Christian
native, met them and begged them not to go on, as Rauparaha was ready to
fight, but they paid no attention, and after marching eight miles up the
pretty valley they saw the Maoris about 100 in number standing