“You will see that E.G. [Edward Gibbon]Wakefield (pictured) and Mr. [Henry] Sewell are no means favourites here, and that they will find more difficulty than they anticipated in saddling the colony with the [Canterbury] Association’s debt, or selling certain lands and buildings which are either reserved for the public purposes or built with the money raised from the land sales. Wakefield is a man I detest more than any other I know, and notwithstanding his tact and plausibility in winning proselytes I think he had few or no real friends. I do not think him the clever man that I have often heard him called. He has an excellent memory and a large stock of brass and impudence, and these seem to carry him through. I am sorry Mr. [John Robert] Godley had left before we arrived, as he would have been the colonist’s champion. Wakefield and Sewell take every opportunity of damaging his reputation”.
Written by John Deans I (of Riccarton) about Edward Gibbon Wakefield (owner of The New Zealand Company & co-founder of The Canterbury Association) and Henry Sewell(The Canterbury Association Deputy Director) – 21st March 1853
*text courtesy of ‘Pioneers of Canterbury – Deans Letters’ 1840 – 1854*
*image courtesy of http://www.footnotinghistory.com*
