William Spain

[4][5] George Clarke Jnr, a clerk in the Native Department who served as a translator during the land claim commission hearings, described him as "a man of solid intelligence, but with a good deal of legal pedantry about him.Spain was given a fixed annual salary of £2000, which equalled that of the Chief Justice and made the pair the second-highest paid public officials in New Zealand, behind the Governor.In that agreement the Crown indicated its acceptance of certain earlier land purchases at Port Nicholson, Porirua, Manawatu, Wanganui and New Plymouth, though the guarantee was conditional on the company proving it had fairly extinguished the Maori title.Within weeks he began encountering opposition and obstruction from the New Zealand Company's principal agent, William Wakefield, who had thought the hearings would be a mere formality.From the outset of his Taranaki investigation he refused to accept the claims of former landowners who returned from slavery in the Waikato, a view that was strongly opposed by both his assistants, Clarke and Thomas Forsaith, a Maori interpreter and Protector of Aborigines.[19] Spain's commission ended in 1845 amid great hostility between the Commissioner and the Governor, a continuation of the friction over FitzRoy's decision to overturn his ruling on the Taranaki claims.
Land Claims CommissionerMāori peopleNew Zealand CompanyNew South WalesInspector-General of PoliceNew South Wales Legislative CouncilLiberal PartyGeorge Clarke JnrWilliam WakefieldTreaty of WaitangiGeorge GippsColonial SecretaryLord John RussellGravesendCharles LigarCape of Good HopeSir George NapierWilliam HobsonWaikanaeWairau AffraySydneyWaverley, New South WalesAustralian Dictionary of BiographyAustralian National UniversityDictionary of New Zealand BiographyMinistry for Culture and HeritageParliament of New South WalesNew South Wales Government GazetteMoon, Paul