BUT even before the colonists had thus achieved a measure of self-government, the Gov­ernment had bought from the Maoris millions of acres of good land in the North Island, and the greatest part of the South Island, where the scanty Maori population made purchase easy. During Sir George Grey’s first term as Governor, the price of land sold by the Crown was reduced, while no limit was set to the area of an individual’s purchase. This double concession made it possible to build up large estates in districts like the Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay. As the Maori Wars largely passed these districts by, the landowners there had a good chance of weathering the storms of early settle­ment and passing on prosperous farms to their children.

In the South Island also, conditions favoured large holdings. The country to the east of the Southern Alps right up to the Wairau was open tussock, admirably suited to sheep farming. And in the South Island, the Presbyterian Settlement of Otago (1848) and the Church of England Canterbury Settlement (1850) were the last and most successful of Wakefield’s colonising enter­prises. They most nearly approached his ideal of an English society planted overseas, with gentry leading the community. Whatever part they might be able to play; there was no lack of gentlemen in early New Zealand. Sheep farming was the one calling that the new-comer might hope to follow without losing his entire capital in exchange for his experience. The majority therefore engaged in running sheep on the empty spaces of the inland region, leasing from five to 50,000 acres for a cheap rental. The price of freehold was high—£.3 an acre in Canterbury and £2 in Otago—but most of the price went to finance the immigration of suitable settlers and to endow education and churches.