as "New Victoria" and managed by the company for that purpose. Britain's Colonial Secretary rejected the proposal. Only 15,500 settlers arrived in New Zealand as part of the company's colonisation schemes, but three of its settlements would—along with Auckland—become and remain the country's "main centres" and provide the foundation for the system of provincial government introduced in 1853. 1825 expedition The earliest organised attempt to colonise New Zealand came in 1825, when the New Zealand Company was formed in London, headed by the wealthy John George Lambton, Whig MP (and later 1st Earl of Durham). Other directors of the company were: East India Company merchants George Lyall, George Palmer (snr), Stewart Marjoribanks and Russell Ellice; politician and merchant Edward Ellice (brother of Russell, and also brother-in-law of Lambton); political economist Robert Torrens snr; landowner and politician Edward Littleton (later 1st Baron Hatherton); Royal Navy officer and politician Courtenay Boyle; banker James Pattison (sometime chair of the East India Company, and later Governor of the Bank of England; writer and politician Aaron Chapman; politician and banker Abraham Wildey Robarts; shipping insurer Ralph Fenwick; solicitor John William Buckle; William Mannings; and James Faden. The company unsuccessfully petitioned the British Government for a 31-year term of exclusive trade and for command over a military force, anticipating that large profits could be made from New Zealand flax, kauri timber, whaling, and sealing. Undeterred by the lack of government support for its plan to establish a settlement protected by a small military force, the company dispatched two ships to New Zealand the following year under the command of Captain James Herd, who was given the task of exploring trade prospects and potential settlement sites in New Zealand. On 5 March 1826 the ships, Lambton and Rosanna, reached Stewart Island, which Herd explored and then dismissed as a possible settlement, before sailing north to inspect land around Otago Harbour. Herd was unconvinced that area was the ideal location and sailed instead for Te Whanganui-a-Tara, (present-day Wellington Harbour), which Herd named Lambton Harbour. Herd explored the area and identified land at the south-west of the harbour as the best place for a European settlement, ignoring the presence of a large pā that was home to members of Te Āti Awa tribe. The ships then sailed up the east coast to explore prospects for trade, stopping at the Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Islands. In January 1827