 Ignoring the wishes of William Wakefield, who wanted the initial settlement at the southwest side of the harbour where there were excellent anchorages for ships, Surveyor-General William Mein Smith began in January 1840 to lay out 1100 one-acre (4047 m2) sections of the town, initially called "Britannia", on the flat land at Pito-one (now Petone), at the north of the harbour.The sections, near the mouth of the Hutt River, were laid out in parallelograms, with the plan including boulevards and public parks.Settlers who had bought a town section had also bought 100 "country acres" (about 40ha), where they could grow their food.