NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

PROVINCE OF NEW ULSTER.

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may relate.

By His Excellency’s Command,

ANDREW SINCLAIR, Colonial Secretary.

Vol. IV. AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, SEPT. 5, 1851. No. 26.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Auckland, 5th September, 1851.

HIS Excellency the LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR has been pleased to direct that the following Despatch and Proclamation be re-published for general information.

By His Excellency’s command,

ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.

Government House,
Wellington, 29th July, 1851.

Sir,

I have the honour herewith to transmit a Proclamation which I have this day issued under the Great Seal of the New Zealand Islands, which incorporates the Town of Auckland and the settled portions of the Auckland district into a Borough, and confers upon the inhabitants of that Borough not only the ordinary powers of an English Town Council, but full powers of self-government on all matters of local interest. As it is also intended to intrust to the inhabitants of the Borough thus created the management of a considerable portion of land fund raised from the sale of Crown lands within the limits of the Borough, and to place under their control the management of various public institutions, I propose to state in this despatch, for your information, the several objects which have been held in view in the preparation of the enclosed Charter.

2. You are aware that under the authority of Proclamations which have been already issued, the country in the vicinity of Auckland has been divided into Hundreds, the inhabitants of which have had conferred upon them the power of electing Wardens, in whose hands has been vested the power of making all requisite regulations connected with the depasturing of stock on the unsold lands within the limits of the Hundreds; and of carrying on certain public works and improvements. To enable the Wardens to effect these objects; all sums of money raised from depasturing licenses, or from the assessments on stock depastured within the limits of the Hundreds; and one-third of the gross proceeds of all Crown lands within the limits of the Hundreds which may be sold by the Crown, are to be placed at their disposal.

3. This system of dividing the country, so soon as it becomes tolerably populous, into Hundreds, has hitherto—in so far as it has been tried—worked well; and I propose that it should be constantly extended over the agricultural districts, as the increase of population in any particular locality renders it advisable to proclaim a Hundred or Hundreds in that district. Indeed, I confidently expect that within a few years, the inhabitants of New Zealand will regard this right of being formed into small Municipalities for the management of the waste lands in their district, and for the expenditure of so considerable a portion of the land fund raised in it, as one of their most valuable and important privileges; and that it will be found that the incorporation for these purposes of all the landed proprietors in the Colony will create throughout the entire country bodies of considerable political influence, who