Association was unusual. It was a colonising project, but not for private gain; in this it radically differed from its parent institution, the New Zealand Company. There were to be no shares, no dividends, and most surprising of all, no capital. The New Zealand Company had granted the Association an option of purchase of 1,000,000 acres of land in New Zealand at 10/- per acre. It was proposed to sell this land at six times its cost to selected emigrants, members of the Church of England, and of good character. But—and this was the crucial feature of the scheme—the profit so made was not to go into any private pockets, but to be administered by the Association as trustees for the spiritual and temporal advancement of the settlement. The following are some of the details of the plan:—
The option over the million acres was for two years, but conditional on £300,000 worth of land being sold within six months, and of further annual sales at a fixed ratio being afterwards made.
The Association was to sell rural lands at £3 per acre, and town and suburban lands at prices mentioned below.
Of the money received from the land sales, one-sixth (in the ease of rural land 10/- per acre) was to be paid to the New Zealand Company for the land; another sixth was to be used for general expenses, which would include survey, roading, bridging and other colonial expenses, as well as the comparatively small London expenses. Two-sixths were to go to form an emigrant fund, to charter boats and take out labour to the new settlement; and the remaining two-sixths were for religious and educational endowments in connection with the Church of England faith.
A general survey was to be made, and 1,000 acres selected and reserved for the capital city, with not exceeding 1,000 acres of “suburban” land adjoining. The lines of the principal streets and squares of the capital city were to be marked out due reserves made
