Chap. VI. WRETCHED STATE OF AUCKLAND. 165 
It appeared, however, that the legislative wisdom 
had not been able to get through its first session 
without the most disgraceful squabbles. Of two rival 
Land Claims Bills, one had at length been passed, 
which was declared by the Auckland newspaper to be 
worse than the first. The rejected one had been 
proposed by the Attorney- General, but withdrawn in 
deference to the opposition of the three non-official 
members ; two of whom, Messrs. Porter and Clendon, 
had grievously offended the land-sharks of the north, 
by supporting a bill of Lieutenant Shortland's manu- 
fiicture and introduction. The Corporation Bill had 
also passed, giving ample powers of local taxation and 
management to any town with a population of 2000 
souls which should apply for the privilege. IMr. Earp 
remained in opposition to both measures ; and his 
conduct, which the people of Wellington attributed to 
instability of purpose, was called by the Auckland 
malcontents the working of profound policy. He had 
entered a long protest against the Corporation Bill on 
account of its too democratic tendency. 
Mr. Clayton, one of the early settlers of the Bay of 
Islands, who had been one among the hungry band 
tempted down to Auckland by the Hobson experiment 
of founding a city, had made the following confession 
of the state of the settlements over which that city 
presided, at a large public meeting held to pass 
resolutions against the Land Claims Bill : — 
" There is an admitted exhausted treasury, no 
" agriculture in progression, not a plough in the 
'* ground ; the ships have left our ports, and we have 
** no money." 
At this time, twenty vessels, six of them three- 
masters, were lying in Wellington harbour ; and ten 
of these, including a barque of 250, and a schooner of 
