Ht ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XII. 
most captious of the protesters. They seemed to ap- 
preciate its useful object. 
On the 4th of August, intelligence was received from 
Sydney, which produced great agitation among the 
settlers at Port Nicholson. The views of Sir George 
Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, with re- 
gard to claims to land in this country, had been em- 
bodied in a measure called the New Zealand Land 
Bill, and this, we heard, had passed the Legislative 
Council. 
The Bill commenced by declaring that the abori- 
ginal inhabitants of New Zealand had no right to 
confer any permanent interest in their lands on any 
individual not a member of their tribes, because they 
could only be considered to hold these lands in trust 
for their future descendants. It therefore declared 
any title to lands in New Zealand not derived from 
the Crown null and void. All claims to such lands 
were to be addressed within six months to the Co- 
lonial Secretary of New South Wales, in order that 
he might refer them to a Board of Commissioners ; 
for whose appointment, operations, and remuneration, 
the Bill also provided. It was especially enacted that 
the Commissioners should be guided in their inquiries 
" by the real justice and good conscience of the case, 
" without regard to legal forms and solemnities." 
But the most remarkable feature of the new law 
was a most stringent provision, which forbade the 
Commissioners from recommending favourably to the 
Governor any grant of land " exceeding in extent 2560 
" acres, or comprehending any headland, promontory, 
"bay, or island that might hereafter be required for 
"I the purposes of defence or for the site of any town, 
" nor any land situate on the sea-shore within a certain 
