the Queen's sovereignty, they must, like myself, submit to the orders I have received. This letter Captain Hobson acknowledged with becoming courtesy, and promised that as, under existing circumstances, no question could arise respecting the sovereign rights of Her British Majesty over every part of the colony of New Zealand, he would willingly forego the exhibition of any authority that could have a tendency to weaken Captain Lavaud's influence over the minds of his countrymen. He would therefore not display the British flag or publish any proclamation at Akaroa, unless some pressing and unforeseen event should render such measures necessary.[166] Fortunately no such exceptional circumstances did arise before the formal acknowledgment was made by France, and in the following November Hobson, when penning his despatch to the Home authorities, was able to assure them that Captain Lavaud's attitude had been consistent throughout; that he had frankly disclaimed any national intentions on the part of his Government, but had vigilantly supported the claims of the French emigrants as private individuals. As a matter of fact, since he had satisfied himself as to the validity of Britain's pretensions, Captain Lavaud had taken up the position that he was in these waters for no other purpose than to see his countrymen peaceably settled on the estate of 30,000 acres to which the Nantes-Bordelaise Company believed they had secured a title by one of those loose transactions so common in the history of New Zealand. He was determined to preserve the peace until he should be instructed to make war. But had his intentions been other than peaceable, Captain Hobson's precautions in sending Magistrates to Akaroa could not have made the British title more secure than it already was. The Treaty of Waitangi was a compact such as no civilised nation could, or would ignore, and when Major Bunbury, by virtue of that treaty, hoisted the British flag at the Cloudy Bay _pa_ on June 17, 1840, he put the sovereignty in the South Island beyond all question of doubt until it could be wrested from Britain by force of arms.