The spirit of the land laws, however, which its settlers have gradually developed is a complete negation of Wakefield's principle.
Some of the chief New Zealand settlements were founded by Church associations; but the Colony's education system has long been purely secular.

From the first those who governed the Islands laboured earnestly to preserve and benefit the native race, and on the whole the treatment extended to them has been just and often generous--yet the wars with them were long, obstinate, and mischievous beyond the common.

The pioneer colonists looked upon New Zealand as an agricultural country, but its main industries have turned out to be grazing and mining.

From the character of its original settlers it was expected to be the most conservative of the colonies; it is just now ranked as the most democratic.

Not only by its founders, but for many years afterwards, Irish were avowedly or tacitly excluded from the immigrants sent to it.