CHAP. I.] GENERAL REMARKS. 15 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Auckland 

 towns and villages, never destined to exist except 

 on paper, started up like the creations of a fairy 

 tale. No. 2 of the suburban allotments, consisting 

 of 3 acres and 3 rods, was sold for 303/., and was 

 cut up directly afterwards into thirty-six allotments, 

 which were sold for 11. 15*. per foot frontage! It 

 is amusing to skim over the weekly paper of Auck- 

 land, and read the names of about six or eight towns, 

 villages, and even racecourses, none of them above 

 three miles from the town of Auckland, which 

 were put up for sale in the short space of a fort- 

 night. 



The Government, after this, ordered a new town 

 to be surveyed at the little harbour of Mahurangi, 

 about fifteen miles to the northward of Auckland, 

 in a barren and unpromising place; and many more 

 were in contemplation, not to speak of the city of 

 Nelson, which it was intended should be the capital, 

 and to lay the foundation of which two ships were 

 at that very moment traversing the billowy main. 



It will be acknowledged on all sides, that to found 

 a dozen capitals and commercial ports, and more 

 than two score of villages, before any population is 

 in the island, any produce raised to support a popu- 

 lation, or any article of commerce ready to be ex- 

 ported, is subverting the natural order of things, and 

 would have raised a smile on the lips of William 

 Penn, who is often regarded as the father of modern 

 colonization. 



