Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 296, 31 March 1849, Page 4

NOTICE.

WE, whose Names are hereunto subscribed, ~ request the Inhabitants of the Town and District of Auckland, to attend a Public Meeting 1 , to be held at the Exchange Hotel, Auckland, on Wednesday next, at One o'clock in the afternoon, for the purpose of expressing their opinion on the subject of the introduction of Convicts, holding tickets of leave, as proposed by Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in a despatch, dated sth August, 1848, and published by order of His Excellency the Governor- in- Chief, in the New Zealand Government Gazette, of the 9th of March, instant, at which meeting the annexed petition to the Queen will be proposed. Fred. Whitaker, W. S. Grahame, Thomas Lewis, John Woodhouse, Thouas S. Forsaith, James Macky, John Salmon, John Rout, John I. Montefiore, David Nathan, W. Hart, J. DILIVORTH. Auckland, March 30th, 1849.

To Her most Gracious Majesiy the Queen— The humble petition of your Majesty '• most loyal and dutiful subjects, inhabitants of the district of Auckland, iv the Prov'nce of New Ulster, in the Territory of New Zealand, Sheweth — That His Excellency the Govfrnor-in-Chief hat published ia the New Zealand Government Gazette a despatch, dated the 3rd day of August, 1848, from the Right Honorable Enrl Grey, your Majesty* Principal Secretary of State for the Coloniei, in which it is stated that, if such a mca-ure should be wished for by the inhabitants, his Lordship would " be piepared to take the necessary stops for including New Zealand in the places into which convicts holding tickets«of leave may be introduced." That your Majesty's petitioners regret that mch a measure has ever been contemplated, and they at once distinctly and solemnly declare that they entertain the most decided and insuperahje objection to the introduction of convicts, under the uarae of " Exiles," as proposed by Earl Grey. That although this Northern Province ia suffering most severely from the want of an adequate supply of labour, and your Majesty's petitioners would gladly tvelcemc to their shores the poor, but honest, subjects of your Majesty, who are starving in their native land, yet, however great the object, your Majesty's petitioners can never consent to lacrifice the character of j their adopted country, and to rick the safety of their persons and property, by voluntarily admitting amongst them those whose qualifications tor the boon of removal to a land where plenty awaits them must, fioin the present mild administration of the criminal law of England, be a conviction for at least an offence of a serious and apgravuted nature. That the experience of the neighbouring colonies has fully convinced your Majeiiy's petitioners, that whatever may be the advantages ga<ned by an a (.equate supply of labour at a reasonable rate (and such ad. vantßges your Majesty's petitioners fully value;, yet they would be infinitely more than counterbalanced by the loss of character to the colony. and the degradation and the crimes, which your Majesty's petitioners feel assured must necessarily follow from the adopMn of such tn expedient as thatpropoied bj your Majesty's Secretary of State. That your Majesty's petitioners have no faith what* ever in the hope derived by Earl Grey from |the re. fornaatory nature of the previous punishment inflicted on the holders of ticketi-of-leave ; and your Majesty's petitioners arc enabled to speak with some confidence in this respect, as they have already been subjected to an experiment with Parkhurst boys. That your Majesty's petitioners humbly assure your Majesty, that after the arrival of, even those juvenile convicts, in whom great reformation was supposed to have been made, property became much more unsafe, and subject to pilfering and loss, than it had previously been ; and although those youug delinquent! did not contiibute one-twentieth to the European population of this Province, yet for two years after their arrival, the committals for felony were doubled as .compared with previous years, and more than one half of such offenders were emigrants from Parkhurst. That in addition to all the objections which can be urged against the introduction of " Exiles" into any of the neighbouring colonies, the number and character of the aboriginal population of New Zealand lends r it, |q the opinion of your Majesty's petitioners, not only inexpedient, but dangerous, to carry out such an ex. periment here, and your Majesty's petitioners feel most strongly that it is of the highest importance to the peace and prosperity of this Territory, that the Europeans, brought into contact with the aborigines* should, as much as possible, be of a different detcrip* tion and chat acter from those proposed to be introduced by Earl Grey under the name of " Exiles." Your Majesty's petitioners, therefore, humbly, but most earnestly, pray, that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to exclude New Zealand from the number of those places into which convicts holding tickets- of leave may be introduced ; and thus at once relieve your Majesty's petitioners from the apprehension of an experiment which, if carried out, they could not look upon m any other light than a serious calamity. And your Majesty's petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

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