 The company's board members included aristocrats, members of Parliament and a prominent magazine publisher, who used their political connections to ceaselessly lobby the British government to achieve its aims.The company indulged in many questionable land purchases from Māori, in many cases reselling land it did not own, and launched elaborate, grandiose and sometimes fraudulent advertising campaigns.It vigorously attacked those it perceived as its opponents—chiefly the British Colonial Office, successive governors of New Zealand, the Church Missionary Society and prominent missionary the Rev.