to go through the ordeal with the rest.  Some twenty-four of these, together with members of their families, had, between 1830 and 1843, bought about 216,000 acres of land from the natives.  The Commissioners cut down this purchase to about 66,000 acres.  Even then there was some litigation and much bitterness.  Some of the very missionaries who had been most prominent in thwarting and denouncing the land purchases of the New Zealand Company were themselves purchasers of land.  As may be imagined, the criticisms directed at them were savage, noisy, and often unjust and exaggerated.  Years afterwards Governor Grey became involved in this miserable controversy, which only slowly died away when he passed ordinances that did much to settle doubtful and disputed claims.

Not all the missionaries laid themselves open to these attacks.  Neither Hadfield, Maunsell, nor the printer Colenso were amongst the land-buyers, and the same honourable self-denial was shown by all the Catholic missionaries, and by all the Wesleyans but two.  Nor were the lay land-claimants always ravenous.  Maning, the Pakeha Maori, had paid L222 for his 200 acres at Hokianga.  At Tauranga L50 had been given for a building site fifty feet square, in a pa.  At Rotorua the price given for half an acre had been L12 10s.  Many of the most monstrous claims, it may be noted, were never brought into court.

In the Cook’s Straits settlements Mr. Spain strove to do equity.  The very sensible plan was adopted of allowing the Company to make some of their incomplete purchases good by additional payments.  But this, which might have brought about a tolerable adjustment in 1840, led to little but delays and recriminations in 1843.  After three years of stagnation the Company was as exasperated and impecunious as the settlers.  The positions of Colonel Wakefield in Wellington, and his brother and fellow-agent, Arthur Wakefield, in Nelson, were almost unbearable.  It is hardly to be wondered at that the latter, in June, 1843, committed the very great mistake which led to the one misfortune from which the unhappy Colony had so far escaped—­war.

In the north-east corner of the South Island lies the grassy valley of the Wairau.  Rich in alluvial soil, open and attractive to the eye, and near the sea, it wanted only greater extent to be one of the finest districts in the Islands.  The Company claimed to have bought it from Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, whose ownership—­for they did not live in it—­was based on recent conquest, and on occupation by some members of their tribe.  The chiefs denied the sale, and, when the Company’s surveyors came into the valley, warned them off, and burned down the huts they had put up.  Commissioner Spain was coming almost at once to try the dispute as to the title.  But the delays and vexations of the previous years had infuriated Captain Wakefield.  He looked upon the chiefs as a pair of “travelling bullies” who wanted but firmness to cow them.