,oi2 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



other claimants, should prove that the signers of the deeds of sale " had a right " to 

 convey the land they sold. In England and in the colony, Mr. Spain's mode of proce- 

 dure was strenuously opposed by the New Zealand Company and its agents. Colonel 

 Wakefield submitted to the Court six purchase deeds; those of Port Nicholson, Nelson, 

 Taranaki, Wanganui, Porirua and Manawatu, for which he sought to obtain Crown 

 grants. Prior, however, to the taking of evidence as to ownership, Mr. Spain told 

 Colonel Wakefield that to ask the Government for a Crown grant of land, whether the 

 native title was extinct or not, was calling upon it to do that which was totally out of 

 its power to do, as the Crown could not grant that which the Crown did not possess. 

 After many sittings of the Court, Mr. Spain reported in 1843 that the New Zealand 

 Land Company's agents had bought two hundred and eighty-two thousand acres : seventy- 

 one thousand nine hundred acres in the Wellington District, one hundred and fifty-one 

 thousand in Nelson, and sixty thousand at New Plymouth. The latter award Captain 

 Fitzroy objected to ratify, and limited the area he considered the Company had fairly 

 purchased to three thousand five hundred acres. This decision, which the Governor had 

 power under the law to give, created much discontent among the Europeans of Taranaki. 



Governor Fitzroy regarded in a somewhat loose manner the Treaty of Waitangi. 

 The spirit of the instrument, in the interests of colonization, consisted in the Crown's 

 right of acquiring all lands alienated by the natives. By proclamation he allowed private 

 persons to purchase land direct from the natives on payment to the Government of ten 

 shillings an acre royalty on the acreage purchased. The natives, when discussing the 

 Treaty before signing it, said the shadow of the land went to the Queen, but the 

 substance remained with them ; now they found the Government wanted the substance, 

 as those who bought land under these conditions impressed on the sellers that the 

 pittance they gave as purchase-money was all they could afford to give, since the 

 Governor got ten shillings for every acre purchased. It is not surprising to learn that 

 only one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five acres were thus acquired. He then 

 reduced the royalty payable to the Crown to a penny per acre, when ninety thousand 

 acres were purchased, much of which, situated in the immediate locality of the city of 

 Auckland, would have proved of great subsequent value to the public at large if it had 

 been acquired by the Government. 



In May, 1844, the Governor sanctioned an Ordinance to issue debentures and -make 

 them a legal tender, being sorely pressed for money ; but the Ordinance was disallowed 

 as being contrary to the Royal Instructions and the welfare of the colony. In June he 

 amended the Ordinances of 1841 levying custom dues, and imposed a duty of thirty 

 per cent, on guns, gunpowder, or weapons of any description, or " any munition of war." 

 In September of the same year he passed an Ordinance repealing all customs duties and 

 declaring all the ports in the colony free, and imposing a tax of one per cent, on 

 property, real and personal, over the value of one hundred pounds. The Ordinance of 

 September was, however, repealed by a new law made in April, 1845, which abolished 

 the property tax and the customs Ordinance of the previous year. The sudden changes 

 in taxation arose from the Maori dissatisfaction in the Bav of Islands District and from 



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the decrease of whalers frequenting the Bay. When customs clues and port charges were 

 levied consequent on the establishment of civil Government, whaling-masters found that 



