One more point deserves notice. In the original plan, the whole of Cathedral Square was set aside as one block for ecclesiastical and educational purposes, the idea being to form a Cathedral and College in the same enclosure in the centre of the city. It was, however, considered that the obstruction to city traffic offered by so large a block would be an inconvenience, and provision was afterwards made for streets crossing the Square. The plan was completed on March 18, 1850, and a copy sent to the Association in London.
On November 18, 1849, the Charter of Incorporation was obtained (Canterbury Papers, p. 57), and on December 1 an agreement was entered into between the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association. Under this agreement, 2,500,000 acres (instead of the 1,000,000 acres originally contemplated) were to be reserved for the Association for ten years.
The value of the land which the Association undertook to sell within six months was reduced to £100,000, and provision was made for the repayment of the advance for preliminary expenses out of the General Purpose Fund. In other respects, the lines of the “Plan of the Association for forming the Settlement of Canterbury” were followed.
Meanwhile Mr. Godley had been busy organising in London during the whole of 1848, though not then contemplating the part he actually played in the leadership of the settlement. His bent was, in fact, a political career, and had health permitted, he would probably have entered the House of Commons. But in 1849, his health showed signs of giving way, and on January 9, he wrote that he had been ordered by his doctor to the Isle of Wight. Later on in September, he had been warned that he would have to leave England for the winter, and Mr. Wakefield, with whom he had been staying, suggested New Zealand. It was about this time that Mr. Godley became deeply
