William Spain was an attorney from Hampshire appointed to head the
commission established to investigate all land purchases prior to
British annexation.
William Spain was born in England in 1803 and trained in the law. In 1841 he became a Land Claims Commissioner in New Zealand. His task was to investigate the New Zealand Company's claims that it had purchased a total of some 20 million acres (8 million hectares) in 1839. Even though most of these purchases were hotly disputed by Maori, hundreds of settlers had arrived to take up the land.
