106 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



advantage in England's newly acquired territory, and glad, 

 no doubt, to escape from the despotism of that Crown colony. 

 It was thus that the land question proved the absorbing theme, 

 to which all others were subsidiary, and that it, and the native 

 connection with it, formed the almost sole politics of daily dis- 

 cussion. Not for long did, or could, Mr. Quaife avoid it, espe- 

 cially as other matters of perhaps more domestic concern, such 

 as police, post-office, &c, were shamefully mismanaged. So, like 

 the proverbial moth, he circled nearer and nearer to his doom, 

 and after the issue of his twenty-seventh number, on the 10th 

 December, which contained various moderate suggestions for 

 reform, he w 7 as peremptorily directed to appear before Mr. 

 Shortland, the Colonial Secretary, and threatened with all the 

 pains and penalties of an old New South Wales Act regarding 

 the printing and publishing of seditious newspapers. This 

 meant, and proved to be, the extinction of his paper. To-day 

 we might well ask, How could such things be? A meeting of 

 the inhabitants was called, whereat there was much plain 

 speaking, and it was resolved that a deputation should inter- 

 view Governor Hobson on the matter and report The late 

 Sir F. Whitaker, then a young and inexperienced man, was 

 one of the number. What the result was I could never learn, 

 but unfavourable, no doubt, for the paper never reappeared. 



Then followed, in foolscap folio, a rag indeed, called the 

 " New Zealand Government Gazette" for it was necessary that 

 the Government should have an organ for its notifications. 

 From internal evidence I am inclined to think that the printer 

 of the crushed Advertiser was employed, and that he was per- 

 mitted to make the best private use of the paper after satisfy- 

 ing official requirements. Comical juxtapositions thus hap- 

 pened — private advertisements for lodgings, salt beef, and 

 other merchandise displayed on the same page as those signed 

 by His Excellency's command ; and, in addition, there were 

 a few items of news. It was published gratis, which, remem- 

 bering the mode in which it rose from the ashes of its 

 predecessor, seems enough. ^Yith the exception of the 

 " Gazette Extraordinary " of the 30th December, 1840, which 

 was really the first number, and printed at Paihia on the 

 Church Mission press, it was issued at Kororareka from the 

 19th February, 1841, until the 15th July, nineteen numbers in 

 all, and then it was superseded, at Auckland, on the 7th 

 July, by the publication which has descended to us from that 

 date, and is known to us all as the " New Zealand Government 

 Gazette." 



It would appear that, though scotched, the Eev. B. Quaife 

 was not killed, and had not forgiven the infliction of his old 

 injuries. A company was soon projected, himself amongst the 

 number, to protect the interests of the public from, as they 



