In 1838, Tuhawaiki, accompanied by four chiefs, visited Sydney and sold enormous tracts of land "with all the solemnity of archaic phraseology and legal circumlocution". Sydney speculators pursued the golden future with an enthusiasm which increased in intensity with the prospect of British annexation of New Zealand. On 14 January 1840, Governor George Gipps of New South Wales issued a proclamation forbidding future sales, unless to the Crown, and warned that commissioners would investigate all titles already claimed and that, where appropriate, Crown grants would validate them. One month later, on 15 February 1840 during a second visit to Sydney, Tuhawaiki, Karetai and three subordinate chiefs, Kaikoarare, Taikawa and Poneke signed an agreement which "sold" the "Island of Te Waipounamu, also called the Middle Island of new Zealand, also the island called Stewarts island... together with all seas, harbours, coasts, bays, inlets, rivers, lakes, waters, mines, minerals, fisheries, woods, forests, liberties, franchises, profits, hereditaments... save and except such portions of the said island as have been already disposed of.. . and also the island of Robuchi". The purchase was made partly by cash payments and partly by annuities. Tuhawaiki signed for "One hundred pounds of lawful British money and an annuity of fifty pounds a year during the term of his natural life." Hence by February 1840, every acre in Otago and Murihiku, as indeed in the entire South Island, had apparently been alienated by the Māori to hopeful speculators who gambled on receiving from the Crown some title commensurate with the expenses they alleged had been incurred.