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18 September 1840 Auckland is proclaimed as the site of a Crown settlement. A prospective deed of sale is signed: the British flag is raised at Point Britomart: there is a twenty-one gun salute. 20 October 1840 The final deed of sale for the purchase of the site of Auckland is signed with Apihai Te Kawau and other Ngati Whatua chiefs. The triangular 3000-acre block of land stretches from Opou (Cox's Creek) around the shoreline to Mataharehare (in Hobson Bay) and south to Maungawhau (Mt Eden). 26 February 1841 Ensign Abel Dottin William Best, assigned to New Zealand with the 80th Regiment, arrives at Auckland. On 8 March he makes an excursion to the shores of the Manukau Harbour. On 1 April he sets off on an expedition with the naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach. The pair travel south via Onehunga, the Manukau Peninsula, and the Awaroa portage. 13 March 1841 Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson lands at Auckland, which becomes the capital of the new colony. 29 March 1841 Lady Jane Franklin, wife of the Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin, Governor of Van Dieman's Land, travels via the Manukau Harbour and Awaroa portage to attend a Church Missionary Society schools' examination meeting at the Waikato Heads mission station. She returns to Auckland on 8 April. 28 May 1841 Hauraki chiefs (mostly Ngati Paoa) sell the 6000-acre Kohimarama block to the Crown. This includes land on the western side of the Tamaki River as far south as the Panmure basin. 9 June 1841 The New Zealand Land Claims Ordinance provides for the establishment of a commission within New Zealand to consider all claims relating to the purchase of land prior to 14 January 1840. (The Crown claims the right of pre-emptive purchase of land in New Zealand, that is, the sole right to purchase land from Maori). The commission, which becomes known as the Old Land Claims Commission, considers amongst many other claims the Fairburn Claim and a number of lesser claims relating to lands in South Auckland. 29 October 1841 The first settlers of the Manukau-Waitemata Land Company embark from the Brilliant at Karangahape Beach (Cornwallis); two more ships arriving later in the year. The settlers expect to find a town laid out for them; instead they find steep hills and dense bush. The settlement has failed by 1844 (although the Manukau-Waitemata Land Company lingers on until about 1860). November 1841 Severely criticized for the extent of his land dealings, William Fairburn resigns from the Church Missionary Society. 26 November 1841 Captain W.C. Symonds drowns in the Manukau Harbour when his boat is upset in a squall while he is taking medical supplies to the Orua Bay mission.