TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEO.

GIPPS, &c. &c. May it please your Excellency, We, the undersigned, settlers in New Zealand, and intending purchasers of town lands in the township of Auckland in NewZealand, beg to call the attention of your Excellency to certain proceeding connected with the proposed disposal of land in that township, deeply affecting our interest as well as those of the public. By the Government advertisement for the sale of town lands at Auckland, it was stated that sections, No. 3, 4, 7, 8, 16, 17, would be exposed to sale by auction ; but we have since learned, that several allotments, comprising some of the most valuable lands in the township, have been reserved from such sale, and appropriated for the benefit of the' Subordinate Officers of the Colonial Government, and that the sections are to be paid for, not according to the price which even some of the less valuable lots in their vicinity might command, "but at the average price of half of the town sections ; and that a credit is to be allowed for the payment of the purchase money, until the sale of half the town. We need not, in addressing your Excellency, dwell upon the injustice of such an arrangement, the loss to the public revenue, the wrong done to bona fide purchasers, and the injury to the character of the Government, by which such measures have been proposed ' or^sanetioned * but, we may venture to say, that such a proceeding is not less opposed to the instructions of Her Majesty for the disposal of the Crown Lands, than unprecedented in the history of the neighbouring colonies. We could, at first, scarcely believe that such a proceeding could be contemplated, since we are assured that there is no one ground, either of policy or justice, upon which it can be defended. We, however, rely with confidence upon the known character of your Excellency, to free the Government from the odium, and ourselves from the injustice of such a measure, by instituting immediate inquiry into the subject, and by suspending the sale until such arrangements ,may have been made as will secure to the "public the great benefit of open competition with regard to- all the lands in that_ townsbin- .v. „. We have the honour to be, Your Excellency's Most obedient humble servants, D. Sinclair, • John Nixon, James C. Crawford, T. M. Partridge & James Watt, Co., f. a. molesworth, a. hort, jun., E. J. Wakefield, E. Daniell, Hay and M'Hattie, H. Moreing, J.P., A. HORNBROOK, J. T. WICKSTEED, RIDGWAYS, GUYTON, ALFRED LuDLAM, and Earp, J. and G. Wade, Samuel Revans, H. W. Petre, Waitt and Tinline, R. Barton, W. B. Rhodes & Co., D. Riddiford, D. S. Durie & Co., E. M. Chapters. W. V. Breweh, Wellington, Port Nicholson, New Zealand,. Feb. 10, 1841.