MEMORIAL. To The Right Honourable The Earl Grey, Her Majesty's Principal Secre-Tary Of State For The Colonies.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 405, 20 June 1849, Page 2

MEMORIAL. To The Right Honourable The Earl Grey, Her Majesty's Principal SecreTary Of State F or The Colonies.

The Memorial of the undersigned members and friends of the Evangelical Alliance, in Wellington, New Zealand, Shewelh — That jour Memorialists have been, and still are, engaged in various wajs, in rtflrts ti> prolru.te the n>oral and religious welfare of the inhabitants of this settl- ment. and the ab'iiginal population in tlie vicinity thereof, both in connexion with Missionary operations and otherwise. That your Memorialists do therefore regard with the utmost regret and alarm, the proposition inadeby jour Lordship, to send hither persons with characters sained by crime, and who, in cons< quence of the stigma attaching to them, uould experience great difficult y in procuring an honest livelihood, and would almost of necessity he driven to resume their predatory habits, either directly in theii own peisons, or indirectly through the n dives, who would be initiated to crime by them, both by precept and example, an effect which your Memorialists know to ha\e been produced by fuffitives from the neighbonring col> nies, who ha\e occasionally found their way hithet. Tliat your Memorialists were gre<itlv encouuiged to become s-ettler* in this colony with their families, by the promise of her Majesty's Government that convicts should ne*'er he sent here, at.d your Memorialises gratelully recoid the fact that they have enjoyed -ui-h security that, excepting in the town, locks and fii.-teninjzs a>e almost unknown, that not one-third of the shops in the town are provided with shutters, and that up to this peliod nea'ly al the gr<i\er offences that have come before the Supieine Court in this settlement for tiia), have been committed bj* persons whose sentence had expi r ed, convicts escaped trom lieiuhbotumg colonies 01 oiliers i.ot settlers. Theanivdl in Auckland of a class of conricis J onnger than those now proposed to be sent out, and who had also passed through a term of probation, added largely to the number of offenders in the colony. That your Memorialists do also regard the matter as peculiarly fi aught wiih danger to the native race, from the fact that there is already a great disparity in the numbers of the sexes,, the number of males being greatly in excess, an evil which the proposed measure would necessatily increase. Your Memorialists also suggest, that while by the pioposed measure the benevolent exertions of many years would be neutralized, and the large sums of money expended thereon bo nearly or altogether wasted, a vastlj* increased expenditure would he mci rred for the protection of properly and the administration of justice, by which the public resources would be drained and jour Memoiialists left with diminished means and lessened hopes to attempt that which wou'd become increasingly necessary, more expensive, and more discouraging. Your Mem or alists therefore earnestlj* deprecate the proposed measuie, at the same time thanking your Loid-hip for the opportuni y of expressing their opinions, before a step was taken which would prove so iijnrious to the community.

Ropata Hurumutu of Wainui, the principal chief of the Nagtihauraia tribe, was brought down to the Colonial Hospital yesterday, being very ill ; two other natives have also been brought down from the same place aa patients. The number of patients in the Colonial Hospital during the last month was 40 natives and 3 Europeans ; these facts show the increasing desire of the natives to avail themselves of the benefits of the Colonial Hospital.