NEW ZEALAND. 377 



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 remaining one hundred and fifty-six claims are 

 not defined by ordinary landmarks, but are limited by degrees of lati- 

 tude 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, 

 affidavits 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 eigh|^ 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. 



Laws have likewise been promulgated and imposts levied, harassing 

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

 commercial pursuits, while they offer the most marked protection 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 portions 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 satis- 

 fied, and so expressed themselves. 



The destructive effect of these laws on American commerce will be 

 great, particularly as those engaged in mercantile pursuits find them- 

 selves called upon to pay heavy duties on their stocks. Americans are 

 not permitted to hold property, and, in consequence, their whaling 



VOL. II. 2G2 48 



