left England under the command of Captain Edward Chaffers, the company had already begun advertising and selling land in New Zealand, and by the end of July—months before the company had even learned the Tory had arrived in New Zealand—all available sections for its first settlement had been sold. The company had already been warned in a letter from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary that the government could give no guarantee of title to land bought from Māori, which would "probably" be liable to repurchase by the Crown. The company had also been told that the Government could neither encourage nor recognise its proceedings. The company's prospectus, issued on 2 May, detailed the Wakefield system of colonisation the company would carry out: 1100 sections, each comprising one "town acre" and 100 "country acres", would be sold in London, sight unseen, at £1 per acre, with the funds raised used to transport the emigrants to New Zealand. Emigrants would be selected either as capitalists or labourers, with labourers being required to work for the capitalists for several years before obtaining land of their own. One in 10 surveyed sections—scattered throughout the settlement—would be reserved for Māori who had been displaced, and the rest would be sold to raise £99,999, of which the company would retain 25 per cent to cover its expenses. Labourers would travel to New Zealand for free, while those who bought land and migrated could claim a 75 percent rebate on their fare. 1839 expedition and land purchases The Tory was the first of three New Zealand Company surveyor ships sent off in haste to prepare for settlers in New Zealand. In August the Cuba, with a surveyors' team headed by Captain William Mein Smith, R.A., set sail, and a month later—still with no word on the success of the Tory and Cuba—on 15 September 1839 it was followed from Gravesend, London, by the Oriental, the first of five 500-ton immigrant ships hired by the company. Following the Oriental were the Aurora, Adelaide, Duke of Roxburgh and Bengal Merchant, plus a freight vessel, the Glenbervie, which all sailed with instructions to rendezvous on 10 January 1840 at Port Hardy on d'Urville Island where they would be told of their final destination. It was expected that by that time William Wakefield would have bought land for the first settlement and had it surveyed, and also inspected the company's land claims at