sions have been arrived at. Mr. Godley left me this morning for Ireland, and I have undertaken to ascertain how far the Company is disposed to act in the matter.
“We adhere to the old plan of settlement, to consist of 300,000 acres (with right of pasturage attached), to be purchased from the Company for 10/- per acre, or £150,000. The place is to be, if possible, Ruamahunga, near Wellington, which is delineated in the illustrations of my son’s book. The purchasers, whether colonists or absentees, to pay to the Company as a trustee for them, £2 10s. per acre, in addition to the price of 10/-, and the amount, being in all £750,000, to be laid out by the Company on behalf of the purchasers in public objects, such as emigration, roads, and church and school endowments. The plan of the colony with respect to such objects to be framed and (except in so far as the Company would act as a trustee) be carried out by a society outside of the Company, consisting of bishops and clergymen, peers, members of Parliament and intending colonists of the higher class.
“In all this there is nothing new to many of the Directors. But now comes the all-important practical question: By whose exertion in particular is the whole scheme to be realised?”
The rest of the letter supplied the answer, and warmly recommended that the carrying out of the plan should be entrusted to Mr. Godley.
Mr. Gadley’s letters to Mr. Adderley, about this time, constantly refer to colonisation, and on December 7, 1847 (doubtless the result of his meeting with Wakefield), he wrote:—“I have a grand colonisation scheme in petto, which is too complicated to be explained in a letter, but which, I feel sure, will enlist your sympathy and co-operation.” A few days later (December 15), he said :— “Did I tell you that the New Zealand Company are flirting with me to get me into their direction, so as to work the labouring oar in the business of colonisation
