william travers sarcastically referred to him as a ""genius"" and charlotte godley (the wife of "father of canterbury" john robert godley) described campbell in letters to her mother by saying:""there is a certain old colonel campbell, who had many dealings with the c. assoc. in early days, and ended by quarrelling with everyone and writing an insulting letter to lord lyttelton, after innumerable statements on his part had turned out to be perfectly false... he is naturally predisposed to dislike the plan, and the colonists, and goes about abusing the place, the land, and all belonging to it, to anyone who will listen to him. the new-comers are his especial prey...he is a very bad element in our society. he is now going over to akaroa to decide summarily certain claims of some of the old settlers there, and my husband intends to go over and watch what he is about; he can hardly help making mistakes, as he has no knowledge whatever of his subject... vexatious, underhand way of doing business... an overweening idea of his own importance...""