The  first  step  would  necessarily  be  the  assent  of  the
natives  to  the  occupation  of  certain  defined  areas  in
consideration  of  a  fixed  annual  payment  ;  but  the
Government  at  this  time  refused  to  recognise  any
such  agreements.  And  yet  experience  was  to  show
that  such  agreements  were  not  only  the  foundation
of  the  prosperity  which  came  later  on — giving  the
country  its  largest  and  principal  article  of  export-
but  also  contributed  to  the  civilisation  of  the  natives,
and  the  establishment  of  the  good  relations  which
afterwards  came  to  exist  between  them  and  the
settlers.
"  I  was  not  long  in  starting  my  new  life.  Clifford,
Vavasour  and  Petre  had  entered  into  negotiations
with  some  chiefs  in  the  interior,  and  were  about  to
start  a  pioneer  sheep  station  in  the  newly  discovered
Wairarapa  Valley.  They  had  bought  a  few  hundred
sheep  from  New  South  Wales,  and  I  at  once  offered
my  services  to  help  to  get  the  flock  to  its  destination,
and  be  of  all  the  use  I  could  in  carrying  out  this  new
enterprise.
