[5] Hursthouse returned to England in late 1848 to encourage family members to emigrate, and he wrote An Account of the Settlement of New Plymouth, which was published in London in 1849.
[7] Hursthouse continued to advise prospective emigrants, charging a fee of one guinea,[8] and write further works on New Zealand,[3] including letters to the editor of The Times in London.
[9] In May 1869, the Taranaki Provincial Council passed a resolution thanking Hursthouse for his "deep interest ... in the welfare of New Zealand during the last twenty-five years".
[9] In 1869 and 1870, Hursthouse advocated that New Zealand and the Australian colonies, excluding Western Australia, should federate to form an independent Australasian republic, comparing their situation to that of the United States a century earlier and setting out the benefits that would accrue from such action.
[3] Hursthouse spent the last few months of his life at the Mount View Lunatic Asylum in Wellington, afflicted by mental illness and convulsions.