Chap. XII. NEW ZEALAND LAND BILL— PANIC. > 181 
'* number of yards of high-water mark, or any other 
" land situate within so many miles of the mouth of 
" any river navigable for vessels of more than fifty tons 
" burthen, nor of any land which, in point of situation 
" or otherwise, would have been in New South Wales 
" not open to the selection of settlers under the Go- 
"vernment Regulations Avhich were in force on the 
" 1st of July 1840." And it was especially provided 
that the Governor might use his discretion in grant- 
ing or not any claim, even if recommended by the 
Commission. 
The panic which seized the great body of colonists 
on the receipt of this intelligence is hardly to be con- 
ceived. The measure promised to deprive them of the 
very site of a town under their feet, which was at that 
moment being distributed to them for occupation and 
improvement. Moreover, it seemed uncertain whether 
any country lands at all would be shared among them ; 
as the Company, like any other claimant, might be re- 
stricted to the maximum allowance of four square 
miles of land : for the Bill, expressly disallowing the 
consideration of any payment made for land, except to 
the aboriginal inhabitants, overthrew the claims of the 
settlers at Port Nicholson to the land for which they 
had paid at the rate of a pound per acre to the Com- 
pany ; who, in their turn, employed three-fourths of 
this payment in carrying labourers to the colony. 
The inhabitants of New South Wales who owned 
land in New Zealand had petitioned and spoken before 
the Legislative Council against the Bill. Generally, 
they objected to the principles on which it was founded, 
as totally at variance with those of the proclamations 
and proceedings of Lieutenant-Governor Hobson. 
He had assumed the sovereignty of the Queen over 
