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earliest opportunity for superseding both the Com-
mission and the Law, by the enactment of a Local
Ordinance for the same general purposes." How
the petitioners can have conceived the idea that
the colonization of New Zealand was undertaken
merely for the purpose of promoting the interests
of those who have been termed the "old settlers"
it is not very easy to imagine. On this subject a
very different version is given by no less an autho-
rity than Her Majesty's Colonial Secretary. In
his original instructions to Captain Hobson on
leaving England, the Marquis of Normanby
assigns a very different reason. "The necessity
for the interposition of the government," (says
he,) "has, however, become too evident to admit
of any further inaction. The reports which have
reached this office within the last few months,
establish the facts that, about the commencement
of the year 1838, a body of not less than 2000 Bri-
tish subjects had become permanent inhabitants
of New Zealand: that amongst them were many
persons of bad or doubtful character-convicts
who had fled from our penal settlements, or sea-
men who had deserted their ships-and that these
people unrestrained by any law, and amenable to
no tribunals, were alternately the authors and the
victims of every species of crime and outrage. It
further appears that extensive cessionsofland have
been obtained from the Natives, and that seve-
ral hundred persons have recently sailed from this
country to occupy and cultivate those lands. The
spirit of adventure having thus been effectually
roused, it can no longer be doubted that an exten-
sive settlement of British subjects will be rapidly
established in New Zealand; and that, unless re-
strained by necessary laws and institutions, they
will repeat unchecked, in that quarter of the globe,
the same process of war and spoilation, under
which uncivilised tribes have almost invariably
disappeared, as often as they have been brought
into the immediate vicinity of emigrants from the
natives of Christendom. To mitigate, and, if
possible to avert these disasters, and to rescue the
emigrants themselves from the evils of a lawless
state of society, it has been resolved to adopt the
most effective measures for establishing amongst
them a settled form of civil government,"-And
to prove how entirely the claims of the various
parties are left to the discretion of the local
authorities, it is only necessary to quote the same
despatch, in which you will find the following
passage. After directing that the Commissioners
shall not themselves decide, but report only, the
Marquis of Normanby expressly directs that, on
their report, the Governor should decide " How
FAR the claims, OR ANY OF THEM, may be entitled
to confirmatary grants from the Crown, and ON
WHAT CONDITIONS such confirmations ought to be
made." And, as if in direct contradictionof the
assertion that the acquisition of large tracts of
Jand formed no part of the views of the British
Government, the Marquis of Normanby, in so
many words, adds, "contemplating the future
growth and extension of a British Colony in New
Zealand, &c., ** it will be your duty to obtain
by fair and equal contracts with the natives, the
cession to the Crown of such waste lands as may
be required for the occupation of settlers resorting
to New Zealand." It is manifest, therefore, that
the colonization of this country was not underta-
ken for the benefit of the Old Settlers, except to
establish order amongst them; and that, from
the first, all the measures of the Government have
been taken in anticipation of its rapid and ex-
tensive colonization; and that, with a view to that
object, the Local government has been intrusted
with most unfettered power of dealing with
the subject. Consistently with the interests of
the claimants, and the future prosperity of the
Colonists, the provisions of the New South Wales
Bill could not be carried into effect. Seeing that
there are several hundred claims, arising too in
every part of the country from North Cape to
Stewart's Island, to grant any considerable por-
tion of the land claimed in every case would, I
contend, have ruinously retarded the successful
colonization of the country. Although they repu-
diate the intention of reserving to themselves the
exclusive right of forming towns and villages, the
government does possess, and ought to exercise,
the power of prescribing the districts within
which, for the interests of the country at large,
settlements may, from time to time, advanta-
geously be formed. Having sold the land, they do
well in leaving to the purchasers the most profita-
ble disposal of it; but, at the same time, they have
a discretion as to the fitting periods for offering
it to the public. Had the provisions of the New
South Wales' Bill been carried into effect, and
a portion of each claim been allowed, the govern-
ment would have been deprived of the important
power of prescribing the limits within which settle-
ments should be formed. The evil is evident-a
number of petty and dispersed settlements would
have been formed, which, without attaining any
degree of importance would, however, soon have
required the appointment of several expensive
Government Officers, including Police Magis-
trates, and thus, without really promoting the vi-
gorous colonization of the colony, the machinery
of its government would become burdensome and
expensive. We should, too, have had all the
evils now admitted incident to a dispersed mode
of settlement. Having no access to a church or a
market, or to communication with his fellows,
settlers would soon have fallen into a state of half
civilization; -deprived of the advantage of
mutual assistance, and losing the wants, tastes,
and habits which belong to an advanced state of
society. To prevent the evils which would have
arisen from allowing settlers to hold large tracts
of land scattered throughout the country, and in
order that this Colony might be founded on ap-
proved principles of colonization, Her Majesty's
Government expressly declared that "contempla-
ting the future growth and extension of a British
Colony in New Zealand, it is an object of the first
importance that the alienation of the unsettletl
lands within its limits' should be conducted, from
its commencement, upon that system of sale, of
which experience has proved the wisdom, and a
disregard of which has been so fatal to the pros-
perity of other British settlements. With a view
to these interests it is obviously the same thing
whether large tracts of land be acquired by the
mere gift of the Government, or by purchases