The firm of Brown and Campbell was very successful, working as auctioneers, shipping agents, importers, and traders with Māori.

The editorial policy was to support the land claimants, such as the New Zealand Company, and the newspaper vigorously attacked Governor George Grey's administration.

The Flagstaff War adversely affected business in Auckland, such that The Southern Cross, stop publishing from April 1845 to July 1847.

[2] Brown stood for the newly created position of Superintendent of Auckland Province at the 1853 provincial elections but lost to Robert Wynyard.

Whilst in the mid-1850s, Brown was probably Auckland's richest man, he had to sell his London house at old age and move in with his daughter and son-in-law.