400 NEW ZEALAND. 



Laws have likewise been promulgated and imposts levied, harass- 

 ing to foreigners, (Americans and others,) and most destructive to 

 their commercial pursuits, while they offer the most marked protec- 

 tion to those of British subjects ! This would seem not a little 

 unjust to those who have been resident, and extensively engaged in 

 commerce, before England took possession, and whilst New Zealand 

 was acknowledged as an independent state. It has, among other 

 things, been enacted, — that all goods imported and remaining on hand 

 on the 1st of January, 1840, the time of British assumption, shall 

 pay duties ; that all lands are to be considered as belonging to the 

 Queen, even those purchased of the chiefs prior to the treaty, while 

 the purchasers shall be only entitled to as many acres as the amount 

 paid to the chiefs will cover at the rate of five shillings per acre. 

 The government in addition reserves to itself the right to such por- 

 tions as it may require. Many of these purchases were made from the 

 native chiefs, prior to the treaty, in good faith, and for an equivalent 

 with which they were well satisfied, and so expressed themselves. 



The destructive effect of these laws on American commerce will 

 be great, particularly as those engaged in mercantile pursuits find 

 themselves called upon to pay heavy duties on their stocks. Ameri- 

 cans are not permitted to hold property, and, in consequence, their 

 whaling establishments on shore must either be broken up altogether, 

 or transferred to other places at a great loss of outlay and capital. 

 Our whalers are now prevented from resorting to the New Zealand 

 ports, or fishing on the coast, by the tonnage duty, port charges, &c, 

 are denied the privilege of disposing of any thing in barter, and 

 obliged to pay a duty on American articles of from ten to five 

 hundred per cent. The expenses of repairs have so much increased, 

 that other places must be sought for the purpose of making them. 

 The timber and timber-lands are exclusively claimed as belonging to 

 Her Majesty. Thus have our citizens been deprived of a fishery 

 yielding about three hundred thousand dollars annually in oil. 



Governor Hobson's proclamation will be found in Appendix XXXI. 



The expenses of this new government were estimated for the year 

 1841 at £50,922 3s. Ad., sterling, which is about equal to £10 for 

 each man, woman, and child ; for the whole foreign population on all 

 the islands, is not supposed to be more than five thousand. The 

 great precipitancy with which the islands were taken possession of, is 

 said to have been owing to the fears entertained that the French 

 intended forming a colony on the southern island in like manner. 



