the bad luck, as well as
the hopeless wrong-headedness, of that unteachable House.

For he landed at Auckland in November, 1843, to find an ample legacy
of trouble awaiting him. The loyal and patriotic address with which
the Aucklanders welcomed him was such as few viceroys have been
condemned to receive at the outset of their term of office. It did not
mince matters. It described the community as bankrupt, and ascribed
its fate to the mistakes and errors of the Government. At New Plymouth
a similar address declared that the settlers were menaced with
irretrievable ruin. Kororareka echoed the wail. Nor was the welcome of
Wellington one whit more cheerful--a past of bungling, a present of
stagnation, a future of danger: such was the picture it drew. It
was not much exaggerated. On the coasts of New Zealand some twelve
thousand colonists were divided into eight settlements, varying in
population from 4,000 at Wellington to 200 at Akaroa. Not one of them
was defensible in military eyes. There were no troops, no militia, no
money. Neither at Wellington nor Nelson had more than one thousand
acres of land been cleared and cultivated. Labourers were riotously
clamouring for work or rations. Within fifty miles of Wellington was
Rauparaha, who, had he appealed to his race, could probably have
mustered a force strong enough to loot and burn the town. Some
wondered why he did not; perhaps Hadfield's influence amongst his
tribe supplied the answer.

Governor Fitzroy began at his first _levee_ at Wellington by scolding
the settlers, inveighing against the local newspaper, and grossly
insulting Gibbon Wakefield's son when he was presented to him. At
Nelson he rated the magistrates after such a fashion that they threw
up their commissions. He then went to Rauparaha's _pa_ at Waikanae
near Kapiti. A dozen whites were with the Governor; five hundred
Maoris surrounded the chief. After lecturing the latter for the
slaughter of the captives at Wairau, Fitzroy informed him that, as the
slain men had been the aggressors, he was to be freely forgiven. Only
one utterly ignorant of the Maori character could have fancied that
this exaggerated clemency would be put down to anything but weakness.
Even some missionaries thought that compensation should have been
demanded for the death of the prisoners. As for the settlers, their
disgust was deep. Putting together the haste, violence, and want of
dignity of his proceedings, they declared the new G