NEW ZEALAND. 399 



epaulettes that the Queen Victoria was to send him, and " then what 

 a handsome man he would be !" 



Those who are not directly benefited by the change, cannot but 

 view it as a disastrous circumstance for the natives, which will seal 

 their doom, and make them the prey of the hosts of adventurers who 

 are flocking in from all parts, some to be engaged as public officers, 

 and to fatten on the coming revenues, and others as speculators. 

 During our stay, a cutter arrived from Sydney, with a number of 

 revenue officers, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries. 



New Zealand continued under the authority of New South Wales, 

 until September, 1840, when it became a separate colony. One of 

 the first acts of the new government has been, by proclamation, to 

 require all those who have acquired lands by purchase from the 

 natives, to exhibit their vouchers, and to show how much land they 

 had purchased, and the price paid. At the same time, a committee 

 was appointed to examine these claims. A few statements made 

 by this committee, will show how the spirit of speculation has 

 been at work in New Zealand. Up to October, 1841, they reported 

 that five hundred and ninety-one claims had been entered by two 

 hundred and eighty individuals; of these, there are four hundred 

 and thirty-five claims, amounting to thirteen millions nine hundred 

 and twenty thousand four hundred and eighty-two acres. The re- 

 maining one hundred and fifty-six claims are not defined by ordi- 

 nary land-marks, but are limited by degrees of latitude and longitude, 

 and computed in square miles instead of acres. The last description 

 of claims are considered, at a moderate calculation, to be double the 

 amount of the four hundred and thirty-five claims, so that in round 

 numbers the claims already sent in to the commissioners may be 

 estimated at forty millions of acres. For four hundred claims, affida- 

 vits have been made, and the total value of goods and money paid by 

 these claimants is thirty-four thousand and ninety-six pounds. 



For one hundred and ninety -five claims, no value is stated; but if 

 paid for in the same ratio, the amount will be nearly forty thousand 

 pounds, or about one penny for three acres. The whole surface of 

 the two islands does not contain more than eighty thousand six 

 hundred square miles, or fifty millions of acres, and the largest part 

 of them has not yet been sold by the natives, viz., the Waikati 

 district, Rotorua and Taupo, in the interior, as well as the whole of 

 the eastern coast of the northern island ; so that it will be difficult to 

 find a space wherein to locate these enormous claims. 



