Mr. Edward Curr, at first the secretary of the company, became their agent. Having some time resided in Van Diemen's Land, he had returned to England, where he published a book on the state of the country, remarkable for its clear narrative and sober delineation. The first ship dispatched by the company was the _Tramnere_ (1826), followed by the _Caroline_. Some time was lost in selecting the settlement, and Circular Head was chosen. On a closer inspection, the district was not found encouraging. Near the shore the country is heavily timbered, and the high lands towards the westward were found barren and cold. Mr. Curr was anxious to bring his line as far possible towards the sun; but the governor held him to the literal agreement, under an impression that the grant was already improvident and excessive. The whole scheme was distasteful to Arthur: a powerful company having interests of its own, whose head-quarters were in London, might have been a counterpoise to his influence, had it not been pushed to the extremity of an inaccessible country. By the oversight or complaisance of Lord Bathurst, the rule which made the outlay of capital the condition of a grant, was not inserted in the covenant. The public works promised by the proprietors were never undertaken, and their establishment was but a larger farm than common. They ultimately obtained several blocks of land, which gave them command of an intervening country of 150,000 acres, at Woolnorth; 20,000 at Circular Head, 10,000 at the Hampshire Hills, 10,000 at the Middlesex Plains, 150,000 at the Surrey Hills, and 10,000 at the islands on the coast. The total actual cost, including survey, was 1s. 6d. per acre. The operations of the company were conducted on a liberal scale: artizans were sent out. The proprietors were promised a remission of L16 for men, and L20 for women, on the quit-rent. This was the first encouragement of free emigration to this quarter of the world. A road was opened with Launceston, chiefly useful to absconders. The importation of sheep and horses of great value, was beneficial to the country. The sheep of the company cost L30,000 (1830), when they exported wool to the value of L2,000. The servants of the company left them on the expiration of their engagements: many before. The reports of the proprietors eulogised the management of Mr. Curr, and affirmed that the moral influence he had acquired rendered his government easy and his people contented. They asserted that ardent spirits were excluded: there were no police or prison, and none required. These statements varied from fact. The company provided no religious teaching for its people; and Mr. Curr, a Roman catholic, could not be expected to promote heretical creeds.