472 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVIII. 
New South Wales was received, all parties felt deeply 
grateful to Sir George Gipps for the act of speedy and 
statesmanlike justice which had induced him to con- 
sider favourably the peculiar claims of the settlement ; 
and it was especially in parting from his rule, that we 
called to mind how he at least had treated us with a 
fostering hand. 
A few days before the arrival of all this intelligence, 
a trading schooner from Kawia and the Thames had 
brought the news that four gentlemen of Wellington 
were appointed Magistrates of the territory. These 
were. Colonel Wakefield, Mr. George Hunter, Mr. 
Henry St. Hill, and Captain Edward Daniell. The 
three gentlemen who composed the deputation to Sir 
George Gipps had been placed in the commission of 
the peace some time before ; but, ignorant of the New 
South Wales law, and not having been regularly 
sworn in, they had refrained from acting as Magistrates 
until a very recent period. 
A public meeting, however, had been thought neces- 
sary to consider " the steps necessary to protect the 
" public from the outrages of the Police establish- 
ment." Complaints had been made of the use of pis- 
tols and handcuffs, and ruffianly dragging to the lock- 
up, on unfounded charges, by the Police constables. If 
the conduct of the inferiors was thought irritating to 
the highest degree, the administration of the penal 
code of New South Wales by the Police Magistrate 
had also been complained of, and some of his decisions 
were severely remarked upon as illegal and unconstitu- 
tional. With no appeal from this irresponsible and 
undefined authority, which disj)ensed in ca})ricious quan- 
tities a law unintelligible to free Englishmen, the 
aggrieved parties had determined on requesting Dr. 
Evans and Mr. Hanson (Mr. Moreing being absent 
