The great land grab

In March 1839, Edward Gibbon Wāakefield urged the members of the nascent New Zealand Company to send an expedition to New Zealand to lay claim to huge amounts of land before anyone else could beat the company to it. As a result, the company’s directors immediately adopted a plan to establish a settlement, or what amounted to a colony, in the islands, despite the fact they had no authority to do so.

As with most of Wakefield’s plans, this one was truly phantastic, not least because it had to be executed at breakneck speed. In instructions he hurriedly drew up in London for his 38-year-old brother, William, who was to be the company’s principal agent and lead the expedition to New Zealand, Wakefield called for considerable diligence to be exercised in purchasing land from the natives. William was required to be especially careful that all the owners of a tract of land approved the sale of it and received a share of the purchase money; he had to ensure that the