St. John's College, Bishop's Auckland, July 1, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 282, 12 April 1848, Page 3

St. John's College, Bishop's Auckland, July 1, 1847.

May it please your Excellency, — I, George Augustus, by Divine permission, Bishop of New Zealand, on my own behalf, and on behalf of the clergymen of this diocese, employed by Captain Hobson to interpret and explain the treaty of Waitangi to the native chiefs of New Zealand, do hereby record my deliberate and formal protest against the principles expressed in a letter of instructions addressed by the Right Hon. the Earl Grey to your Excellency, bearing date, Downing-street, 23rd December, 1846, to the effect that, " The savage inhabitants of New Zealand have no right of property in land which they do not occupy, and which has remained unsubdued to the purposes of man." Against this doctrine I feel myself called upon to protest, as the head of the missionary body, by whose influence and representations, the native chiefs were induced to sign the treaty of Waitangi, not one of whom would have consented to act as an agent of the British Government, if the assurances given to them by Captain Hobson had not been directly contrary to the principles now arowed by the Right Hon. the Eatl Grey. It is my duty also to inform your Excellency, that I am resolved, God being my helper, to use all legal and constitutional measures, befitting my station, to inform the natives of New Zealand, of their rights and privileges as British subjects, to assist them in asserting and maintaining them, whether by petition to the Imperial Parliament, or other loyal and peaceable methods : but that in so doing, I shall not forget the respect which I owe to your Excellency, nor do anything which can be considered likely to add to the difficulties of the colony. 1 have further to request, that this communication may be forwarded to the Right Hon. the Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies, with whom I am privileged to communicate through your Excellency. I have, &c, G. A. N. Zealand. His Excellency Governor Grey, &c, &c, &c.