SUPPLEMENT

TO THE

NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,

OF WEDNESDAY, 23rd MARCH, 1842.
Published by Authority.

VOL. II.] AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1842. [No. 12.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Conclusion of the Debates, on Monday, January
31st, on the Second Reading of the First Land
Claims' Bill.

(Continued from the Supplement of the 16th instant.)

savage country, is placed in a much worse posi-
tion than the mere land-jobber, who has only
been induced to emigrate on learning the success
of the first colonists. I will not rest the case on
the despatch of the Marquis of Normanby, so
often alluded to, but meet it on its own merits.
I am not a little surprised that persons are to be
deprived of their lands without distinction, when
it is admitted in the preamble of the bill that valid
purchases have been made. What right, I will
ask, has Government to dispossess people of
lands which they admit have been validly pur-
chased? All lands adjudged by the Commissioner
will be found to be validly purchased, since no
compensation in land will be allowed beyond four
times the amount of money actually paid. At
least government should give claimants the option
of retaining their lands, and not compel them to
resort to government towns. If this be persisted
in, the impression out of doors will be, that a
mistake has been made as to the site of the seat
of Government; that it was not sufficiently
central, and that their only mode of evading this
difficulty is, to force a large population from all
the southern districts, to the extreme north of the
Island. Such a conclusion may not probably be
the correct one, but this is the natural inference.
I cannot help thinking it will be generally enter-
tained; and I cannot agree to this principle,

unless there is introduced into the clause some
modification in the method of applying it. I am
also rather surprised to hear honorable Members
connected with the Government advocating so
warmly the principle of concentration in coloni-
sation. This is one of the first objects in the
Wakefield system, as it is called; but it is folly
to imagine that the same system is alike applicable
to every country, without regard to the particular
requirements of the country. Centralisation, as
it is called, has utterly failed in South Australia,
which has scarcely any available sea-board, and
a hostile and useless native population; but the
case is very different with New Zealand, with a
seaboard as great, if not greater, than that of the
United States of America, and a population of
Aborigines scattered along the whole line, who
are anxious to give us their produce in exchange
for our manufactures to any extent we please;
and how could this be effected by concentrating
the population in two or three localities? It is
obvious that such commerce could alone be
carried on by forming dispersed settlements, in-
stead of centralising them. Settlements ought to
be as rapidly as possible spread over this immense
line of coast, in order to supply the natives in
different parts with European manufactures, and
of which they are anxious to obtain possession.
There will always be a sufficient population in
the towns to afford the necessary supplies to
distant settlements. The result of compelling
persons resident at the trading and whaling
stations to take their lands at Auckland, would
be, that the natives on the coast would not be
able to obtain European manufactures, and settlers