art was held to have
passed from the natives, and was divided between the Crown and the
claimants. A number of the Church of England missionaries had 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 o