ew months later
fetched L45 an acre, and cultivation lots L8 an acre. For one or two
picked city frontages as much as L7 10s. a foot was paid. The hanging
up of the northern land claims, and the inability of the Government to
buy native land while it refused to let private persons do so, joined,
with a trade collapse in Australia, to make the condition of the
Auckland settlers soon almost as unenviable as that of their
fellow-colonists in the Company's settlements.

Governor Hobson died at Auckland after ruling New Zealand for a little
less than three years. His best monument is the city which he founded,
and the most memorable verdict on his life is written in a letter
addressed by a Maori chief to the Queen. "Let not," said this
petition, "the new Governor be a boy or one puffed up. Let not a
troubler come amongst us. Let him be a good man like this Governor who
has just died." When these words were written, the judgment of the
English in New Zealand would have been very different. But time
has vindicated Hobson's honesty and courage, and in some important
respects even his discernment. He anticipated the French, baffled the
land-sharks, kept the peace, was generous to the Maori, and founded
Auckland. No bad record this for the harassed, dying sailor, sent to
stand between his own countrymen and savages at the very end of
the earth, and left almost without men or money! If under him the
colonists found their lot almost unbearable, the fault was chiefly
that of his masters. Most of his impolicy came from Downing Street;
most of his good deeds were his own. It must be remembered that he was
sent to New Zealand, not to push on settlement, but to protect the
natives and assert the Queen's authority. These duties he never
forgot.

Chapter XI

THROUGH WEAKNESS INTO WAR

"Awhile he makes some false way, undebarred
By thwarting signs, and braves
The freshening wind and blackening waves,
And then the tempest strikes him; and between
The lightning-bursts is seen
Only a driving wreck,
And the pale master on his spar-strewn deck."

In 1842 it took eight months before an official, when writing from
New Zealand to England, could hope to get an answer. The time was far
distant when the results of a cricket match in the southern hemisphere
could be proclaimed in the streets of London before noon on the day of
play. It was not therefore surprising that Hobson's successor did not
reach the Colony f