1839 William Hobson appointed

With the New Zealand Company in the process of despatching colonists from London, the British Government decided to appoint naval officer Captain William Hobson as Consul. Hobson left England shortly after the New Zealand Company's first ship, the Tory. He was instructed to obtain sovereignty over all or part of New Zealand with the consent of a sufficient number of chiefs. New Zealand would come under the authority of Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, and Hobson himself would become Gipps's Lieutenant-Governor. Land-buying agents continued swarming over New Zealand in anticipation of purchasing opportunities being cut off by Hobson. It was later calculated that their combined claims amounted to more than New Zealand's total land area.