AUCKLAND

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 692, 20 March 1852, Page 3

AUCKLAND

At a meeting of the Auckland Municipal Council, Feb. 9, after an additional report from the Committee on Rural Lands, and a report from the Committee on Public Works and Buildings had been received, the following draft of a Petition to Parliament, against the New Zealand Company’s claim, was submitted by Aiderman Powditch, to the Council, and unanimously adopted :• —•

The Memorial of Humbly sheweth, — That your Memorialists are intimately connected with the internal and external trade of the Province of New Ulster, of which this Borough of Auckland is the capital. That through this emporium the aborigines of New Zealand (of whom the greater and more intelligent portion are contained within the limits of this province,) have been for many years exchanging their agricultural and indigenous produce for British manufactures, a trade diverged for many years past from the Australian colonies direct through this borough. That this province enumerates seventeen sea ports, noted in the margin, * all eligible for foreign shipping, besides numerous minor ports engaged in coast trade, showing an entry into the Port of Auckland for the tear 1851, of 470 vessels averaging 20 tons, making an aggregate of 8,000 tons coast borne, importing 14,000 quarters of grain, mostly aboriginal culture, and other staple produce not less than £50,000 value, while the foreign imports of the same year amounted to £lOO,OOO.

That vast inland traffic exists, which cannot be shown for want of returns, in which position is the valley of the Waikato, possessing an inland water communication of 200 miles, and which, from its superior soil, is capable of raising cereal crops sufficient for the whole colony of New Zealand. That the mineral resources of this province consist of Copper, Iron, Manganese, Coal, Sulphur, Slate, Limestone, Ochre, and Pottery Clay.

That the greater portion of the demesne lands now held in this province have been derived from exchanges for Scrip with the anterior settlers, and comprise large tracts of Kauri forest,—which timber is not produced in any

other province of New Zealand, — and also other varieties of superior timber for every architectural and agricultural purpose, similar to the Fir, the Pine, and the Oak. That the extensive commerce derived from these resources, induced the merchants of New South Wales, so far back as 1833, to solicit the establishment of a British Resident in the Bay of Islands ; and that these enterprises have been conducted by numerous British subjects unconnected with any Company, many of whom have been residing in the midst of the aborigines in the utmost confidence and harmony upwards of twenty years. That these vast resources, developed through their energies, have never received any direct aid, either from the funds, the commercial operations, or the legislative measures of the New Zealand Company, but on the contrary they have uniformly endeavoured to throw discredit on this northern province. That no complete purchase of land has ever taken place by the said Company in this province except that of the Plymouth Company at Taranaki.

That the population of this borough is 8,000 souls, and that 8,000 acres of land are in a high state of cultivation within its precincts. That the improvements rendered necessary to this coast trade and community, are of great expense and magnitude. And your Memorialists,' being aware of the discredit thrown on the resources of this province and its energetic colonists by the emissaries of the said Company through the columns of the New Zealand Journal, look with the utmost surprise at a measure so unjust as that in contemplation by the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to impledge the revenues of this province for the losses sustained by any experimental Company wholly unconnected therewith, and humbly pra'v your Honourable House not to impose any claim on behalf of the ‘New Zealand Company on any of the revenues or resources of this Province of New Ulster. And your Memorialists as in duty hound will ever pray. » Turanga, Tauranga, Mercury Bay, Coromandel, Barrier, Tutukaka. Kawau, ■ Mahurangi, Waitemata, (Auckland,) Wangari, Bay of Islands, Kaitaia, Monganui, Wangaroa, Kaipara, Manukau, and llokianga.