[10] Together with the survey staff Lord John Russell had commissioned Captain Robert Kearsley Dawson, RE, to select,[11] Ligar and family departed Gravesend on 16 April and Plymouth on 14 May 1841, on the Prince Rupert, for New Zealand.

His former superior in Ireland, now Commanding Royal Engineer, New Zealand, Lieutenant George Augustus Bennett, RE, was elected president, [15] and Acting Governor Willoughby Shortland, RN, took on the role of patron on 22 September.

Construction of an ambitious fieldwork for two militia companies, called Fort Ligar, commenced on private land on the town's western high ground as part of Auckland's immediate defence.

However, the arrival of 200 men of the 58th Regiment, and FitzRoy's proclamation of 26 April commencing military operations in the north, brought an end to it only weeks after work began.

[1] Ligar was appointed Surveyor General of Victoria in 1858 (replacing Clement Hodgkinson), promising to reduce survey costs and open the land for settlers.