Chap. XVIII. ADDRESS OF MAGISTRATES. 478 
from the settlement) to take their place on the Bench 
of Magistrates. Dr. Evans had acceded to the request, 
notwithstanding the petulant display of temper made 
by Mr. Murphy on the occasion of his first acting 
upon this resolution. The hitherto unrestrained poten- 
tate declared, in the Police Court, that he would not 
sit on the Bench while Dr. Evans did, except in cases 
which, by law, required the presence of two Magis- 
trates. 
The first act of the newly-created Justices was to 
address a very able paper to Captain Hobson, congra- 
tulating him on his new and independent position. 
They seized the opportunity to urge upon him a ces- 
sation of the lamentable hostilities which had already 
existed between the great mass of the subjects and the 
Government of the colony, and to impress him with 
the importance of considering the changed aspect of 
affairs, in such a manner as to fix the authority of his 
presence in the nucleus of the only systematic scheme 
for peopling the islands. They dwelt at some length 
on the results of the exploring expeditions which had 
proved Port Nicholson to be essentially a central posi- 
tion for the whole islands to be so peopled, although 
they acknowledged that Auckland might perhaps have 
been chosen advantageously for a capital had no 
British settlement previously existed, and had it fallen 
to the province of the Governor to choose a centre 
from which colonization should diverge. But they 
pointed out to him, that the Agreement seemed to 
recognize the Company as the colonizing instrument of 
New Zealaand, and to leave the Governor to the dis- 
charge of the higher functions of government. And 
they argued, that for the sake of the native as well as 
the White population, he would best do this by direct- 
ing in person that portion of the European colony 
