December 24, gave his written consent.
While on the subject of the Land Purchasers’ Society, it may be convenient to refer to a letter dated January 27, 1851, addressed to the Hon. J. Stuart Wortley, Honorary Secretary of the Council of the Society, in which Mr. Godley expressed his general intention to be largely guided by the wishes of that Society: “So long,” to quote his own words, “as I shall be satisfied that your body does really and adequately represent the land purchasers of the settlement.” To meet this proviso, the Council decided to resign the trust confided to them into the “hands of the general body of colonists,” and another election was held, at which the following Council was elected:—
Messrs. W. G. Brittan ([1]), Burke, T. Cholmondeley ([1]), Dampier, W. Deans, J. E. FitzGerald ([1]), Longden, H. Phillips ([1]), J. Watts Russell ([1]), H. Tancred ([1]), J. Townsend ([1]), E. R. Ward ([1]).
This Council was not altogether a happy family, and went through at least one “crisis,” but fortunately it included in its membership several men of sterling character, who carried it through its difficulties with credit and discretion.
With the opening of the New Year came Bishop Selwyn, almost a “first footer,” according to a pleasant Scottish phrase, to pay his first pastoral visit to Canterbury. The Bishop arrived on January 6, from Wellington in his own schooner, the “Undine” of 40 tons burden. He sailed the little craft himself, navigating the rough water from the North Cape to the Auckland Islands, which were both included in his immense diocese. George Augustus Selwyn was a very notable figure in early New Zealand history: the last and one of the greatest of the missionaries. He was born in 1809, and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He took a good degree in classics, and rowed in the first Oxford and
