Chap. XV. BURLESQUE FOUNDATION OF AUCKLAND. 411 
Government Surveyor-General, Mr. Felton Mathew 
on the 18th of September. Formal possession was 
taken in the name of the Queen, and her health was 
drunk at the foot of a flag-staff. Salutes were fired 
from the two vessels which had brought the party 
there three days l)efore, the boats ran races, and a 
lunch on board ship was honoured, we were told, by 
the presence of the following Government officers : — 
" the Police Magistrate, the Colonial Surgeon, the 
" Harbourmaster, the Superintendent of works, the 
" Sub-Protector of Aborigines, the Surveyor-General 
" and his lady ! " This brilliant staff assembled on 
the uninhabited shores of a harbour in which their 
own two vessels lay, contrasted singularly with that 
provided for the large and stirring population of Bri- 
tannia, to wit, a Police Magistrate and an Assistant 
Postmaster. The grand show thus made at Auck- 
land before nobody by Mr. Felton Mathew and his 
brother officials, without even waiting for the arrival of 
the founder, was strikingly characteristic of the man 
and the class. Mr. Mathew had been promoted to the 
situation of Surveyor-General of New Zealand from 
that of Town-Surveyor of Sydney. While holding 
that office, by which it seems he was entitled to wear 
an epaulette, he had made a very serious application to 
the Governor for permission to wear two. " You may 
** have threCy if you like," answered Sir George Gipps, 
" but I couldn't think of allowing you to wear two." 
On the 12th of October, Mr. Murphy had issued a 
prohibition against the cutting of wood by sawyers 
without the permission of the owner of the land. This 
partial recognition of the title of the settlers, so neces- 
sary to prevent the great devastation which was now 
progressing in all the timbered lands within a few 
miles from the town, had been steadily refused during 
