Any Dunedin history buffs here? I have a few questions about the settlement period.

Hi, although I no longer live in Dunedin I still consider it home and I'm keen to learn more about our history. Here's a few questions I have:

• We know that in 1848 the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin, deciding it would make it the principal town for its Scottish settlement. My question is how did they get this land in the first place? Did the Church of Scotland purchase this land from the British Crown, or was it given to them? I can't seem to find information on how/if there was a transaction at all.

• A journal entry from a passenger on the first settlement ship from Scotland to Dunedin in 1948 stated: "“All seemed pleased and called it a goodly land – Port Chalmers and around is truly beautiful – rich in scenery – its slopes and shores are fertile, and wooded to the water’s edge.”". My question - Transforming this "godly land' to to a township must've been tremendously difficult and labor intensive work. There's quite a lot of information about the historic churches that were built in the 1860s gold rush, but is there information about the daily life of the settlers creating the foundational infrastructure throughout the 1850s? That must've been a tough time.

• Is there information about how the relations were between the Scottish settlers and the existing Maori settlements? I understand there was a well established Maori settlement in Otakou which had a well documented feud with the British settlers between 1810 - 1823 in what's known as the Sealers War, but I can't find much information about Maori relations with the Scottish Settlers.