Story: Early mapping

This plan shows a proposed town laid out in a grid along the Hutt River. There is a fort at each corner and much space for public buildings. It was once thought that William Mein Smith, surveyor general to the New Zealand Company, brought this plan with him from England, and that his failure to establish such a town in the Hutt Valley resulted in the site being moved to Te Aro (the current site of Wellington). But recent research by Roy Montgomery suggests that this plan was drawn up in England, well after Smith and his survey team arrived in New Zealand, and that its main function was as sales propaganda for the New Zealand Company.