Chap. X. PUBLIC MEETING AT AUCKLAND. 263 
of September, and remained for a month ; at the end 
of which time he proceeded by land towards Taranaki. 
Through Nelson, we gathered a sad account of the 
languishing state of Auckland. On the 5th of August, 
a public meeting had been held at that city for the 
purpose of devising, if possible, some means for better- 
ing the condition of the settlement. No one, however, 
had come prepared with a resolution ; but the meeting, 
after adjourning for a week, adopted a memorial to his 
Excellency, recommending, as the grand nostrums for 
sick Auckland, a speedy adjustment of the claims to 
land by old settlers, and the lowering of the upset 
price of crown lands to 5^. per acre. The poor unfor- 
tunates, like many a man dying of quack medicines, 
clove fast to the land which had ruined them. Some 
of them seemed to have a faint idea that population 
and capital would be desirable addenda ; for the Auck- 
land paper threw out the following despairing sugges- 
tion, like a drowning man catching at a straw: — 
" Something should also be done to appease the 
" Port Nicholson and Nelson settlers, whose unfor- 
" tunate quarrels with the local Government have 
" already done much harm to our settlement. Could 
" not his Excellency do something to enable them to 
" leave the mountains, marshes, and fens of Cook's 
*' Strait, for the settlements to the northward, in 
" each of which there is an abundance of rich and 
" fertile land, which would yield them a remunerating 
" profit for the capital and labour they are now so 
" unprofitably wasting on comparatively useless and 
" unproductive lands ?" 
The Port Nicholson and Nelson settlers would 
surely have been tempted by these kind offers of 
the old settlers to sell them their land ; but, 
unfortunately, the productiveness of the Auckland 
