AUCKLAND NEWS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 239, 13 November 1847, Page 2

AUCKLAND NEWS.

[From the Sydney Papers.] Auckland papers to the 9th instant have come to hand. Major-General Pitt, the Commander of the Forces, had arrived at Auckland, and also another draft of the New Zealand Fencibles. These soldiers bid fair to be a most valuable acquisition to the colony, as they are nearly all men of large families. The last detachment, which consisted of 80 men, was accompanied by 69 women and 179 children. The Legislative Council was sitting, and had passed two important acts, one to prevent any marriages from being performed, between persons under twenty-one years "without the consent of guardians, and to prevent any per- ! son except a minister of religion from celebrating matrimony ; and the other to appropriate one-twentieth of the ordinary revenue to the promotion of education, the schools to be placed nnder the superintendence of the Bishop of New Zealand and the heads of the different religious bodies. The long pending land claims of the Church of England missionaries had been settled through the intervention of the Bishop of New Zealand. The terms of the agreement had not transpired, but it is understood that the missionaries forego a large portion of their claims. As many of the large land claimants expected to obtain a favourable consideration of their claims, through the influence of the missionaries, there are some imputations upon the Governor for invoking the Bishop's assistance, and upon his Lordship for interfering, for as the missionaries have given up their claims, it is felt that many will have to adopt the same course. Trade appears to be flourishing, and while the profuse Government expenditure continues, all will go on swimmingly ; but whenever that ceases, the large sums being invested in town lots and buildings, will, we fear, yield a very small return.