Chap. XVI. HEARTLESS POPULATION OF AUCKLAND. 417 
Mr. Clarke displayed less forbearance, perhaps, and 
took greater pains to circulate injurious reports, than 
even the " disappointed settlers." 
There can be but little doubt that, as I said before, 
Mr. Clarke was the more influential of the two officers 
who had worked on Governor Hobson's paralysed 
mind. 
From the Auckland public we had at least expected 
some condolence for our sorrows, if not sympathy for 
our wrongs. But the report of Dr. Evans and the tone 
of the Auckland newspapers combined to show that 
they united with the Government to condemn our lost 
friends, and openly exulted over the measures taken by 
the authorities to irritate our wounds and to repress 
an imagined desire for indiscriminate revenge. 
So heartless and unmanly was the character of the 
population which had been gathered together merely 
to scramble for the spoils of a land-jobbing experiment, 
and to share the booty drawn from our hard-working 
community. 
The natives, of course, soon heard of the ** rights-of^ 
ownership" proclamation ; and threatened to eject per- 
sons from lands which had been occupied for years, 
making them disputed lands by the very act. Mr. 
Halswell, who had been distinguished for his fatherly, 
though perhaps too indulgent, conduct to natives of all 
classes, was one of the first to receive "notice to quit" 
from the very men to whom his house had afforded so 
much hospitality and kindness. Several settlers in the 
Hutt were warned to leave within a few weeks. 
W^hen the news got to New Plymouth, the natives 
intimated to the Police Magistrate, who had a really 
nice house and farm, that he must make room for 
them within a given time. E Tako expressed his inten- 
tion of receiving the rents from a number of houses 
VOL. II. 2 E 
