He began by stealthily sending a scout on shore at daybreak to haul down the Company’s flag in Wellington and hoist the Union Jack instead.  Then he landed amongst the settlers, who had gathered to welcome him, in the fashion of a royal commander sent to suppress a rebellion.  The settlers consoled themselves by laughing at him.  Apart from one circular visit occupying two months, Captain Hobson himself kept sedulously away from the southern settlements, and stayed in the north, then a longer journey away from Wellington than Australia is now.  Under the rather high-sounding title of Chief Protector of the Aborigines, Mr. Clarke, a missionary, was appointed to be the Governor’s adviser on native matters; yet Mr. Clarke, the settlers complained, was a larger land claimant than any of themselves.  It is not to be wondered at if a feeling grew up among the New Zealand settlers directed against both officials and missionaries, which at times intensified to great bitterness, and which took many years to die down.  Even now its faint relics may be observed in a vague feeling of dislike and contempt for the Colonial Office.

The New Zealand Company, however, cannot be acquitted of blame in more respects than one.  The foundation of the Wakefield theory rested on a secure supply of useful land.  This not available, the bottom dropped out of the whole scheme.  When in New Zealand the Company’s estate was put into chancery, the Wakefield system could not, of course, work.  Not only were the Company’s purchases such as could not be sustained, not only did the directors hurry out thousands of settlers without proper knowledge or consideration, but they also committed a capital error in their choice of localities for settlements.  Wellington, with its central position and magnificent harbour, is undeniably the key of New Zealand.  It was in after years very properly made the seat of government, and is always likely to remain so.  But it was an almost criminal error on the part of the Company to plump down its settlers in districts that were occupied and certain to be stubbornly held by warlike natives.  Nearly the whole of the South Island had no human occupants.  Shut off by the Kaikoura mountains from the more dangerous tribes, the east and south-east of that island lay open to the first comer.  Moreover, the country there was not only fertile, but in large part treeless, and therefore singularly suited for rapid and profitable settlement.  It is quite easy to see now that had the New Zealand Company begun its first operations there, a host of failures and troubles would have been avoided.  The settlement of the North Island should not have been begun until after an understanding had been come to with the Imperial authorities and missionaries, and on a proper and legal system of land purchase.  This and other things the Company might have found out if it had taken early steps to do so.  The truth is that the first occupation of New Zealand was rushed, and, like everything else that is done in a hurry, it was in part done very badly.