.C^AP. VI. GOVERNMENT ESTIMATES. 151 
forage for their horses, travelling expenses, and con- 
tingencies — only 200/. being put down for presents to 
the natives. 
This estimate proposed to spend 4250/. in Port 
Nicholson, 3715/. in the Bay of Islands, and 1013/. in 
Hokianga, Kaipara, and Akaroa : so that very nearly 
five-sixths of this enormous expenditure v^as to take 
place for the glory of the artificial capital. 
' Upwards of 6700/. was included in items for the 
private comfort of the Governor. 
The whole financial structure was well planned to 
support the proclamation-capital at the expense of the 
population-settlements. 
Profuse appointments to subordinate offices under 
the Government were made the means of inducing 
many a visitor to settle at Auckland. Captain Hobson 
had been commonly heard to say, when he was told at 
Port Nicholson of some settler who wanted an induce- 
ment to move, " I can give him 150/. a year and a 
" comfortable house." 
The Legislative Council had been opened by the 
Governor on the 14th of December; and we gathered 
by fits and starts, that the principal legislative measures 
were the Municipal Corporation Bill, which the Go- 
vernment seemed anxious to pass in order that the 
Wellington people might be compelled to erect at their 
own expense those public buildings which the Govern- 
ment refused to build, and the Police Magistrates 
Bill. This last measure made the Justices of the 
Peace mere puppets, unable to commit a prisoner, or to 
hold him to bail ; and granted to the paid Police Ma- 
gistrates, who constituted the entire machinery of 
Government in these settlements, a power on the 
bench equal to that of any two unpaid Magistrates, as 
well as that from which unpaid Magistrates were 
restricted. 
