EXTRACTS. PROCLAMATION. {From the Wellington Spectator, August 5, 1843.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 20, 2 September 1843, Page 4

EXTRACTS. PROCLAMATION. {From the Wellington Spectator, August 5, 1843.)

On reading Mr. Shortland s proclamation respecting the lands, we expressed a hope that it would not reach the hands of the natives, as it could only operate as an official invitation to them to turn off the settlers. In our next number, we informed our readers that the natives had come to the knowledge of it, and that they were threatening j aggressions. It is now our painful task to record the fulfillment of their intentions. Some labouring men, four in number, of the name of Manson, who have been for six months past clearing the section No. 59, on the Hutt, a little above Mr. Mason's, and which they rented of Mr. Ludlam for 21 years, were visited on Thursday by about 80 or 100 Maorics, who informed them that unless they immediately quitted the land, they would "make a tie" of them, and carry them to the Governor. The- following day they reappeared and threatened 'to destroy the settler's property, unless they departed, when thus compelled they were obliged to do. i The Maories had a copy of the Proclamation, ! and said that they were told by the Governor and Mr. Clarke to drive off the white men. The Mansons case is particularly hard, but only a type we believe of many others, which will follow, unless this mischievous proclamation is retracted, like Mr. M'Donogh's and the Crown Prosecutor's. They had worked day and night, (as one of them expressed himself to us, to make a little money, and get a crop into the land they ■cleared; (about seven acres,) a.nd now when

their wheat is in the ground and they have no other resource, they are driven off from the fruit of their labours. Where is this to end ? We see no barrier between Mansons and the settlers on the lower parts of the Hut ; and the natives in their threats draw no distinction. We stated in our last that the Auckland Proclamations were beginning to operate, and that several industrious settlers of the name of Manson had been driven off land which they had occupied for six months. ' We understand that on application to the Police Magistrate for assistance, he informed them that he considered that the natives had not been paid for their land, that they seemed to him to be in the right, and that he could give no assistance to the Mansons. We learn also, that the Local Judge has received notice to quit land occupied by him in the Town of Wellington ; and a rumour was abroad yesterday, that similar notices were about to be given to all the residents beween Kumu Toto pah and Barrets Hotel. The Government of New Zealand has committed many mistakes, but none so fatal as in its treatment of the Land Claims. — lb. ' The ' Colonist newspaper, which was established in this place about twelve months ago, and was generally understood to be edited by a gentleman in the employment of Government, has been discontinued. — lb. In the New Zealand Government Gazette, of July 12, we find a Proclamation issued by Mr. Shortland, warning all persons claiming land in this colony , in all cases where the claim is denied or disputed by the original Native owners, from exercising acts of ownership thereon, or otherwise prejudicing the' question of title to the same until the question of ownership shall (have been settled by the Land Claims' Commissioners. Proclamations relating to such matters as this does, whether issued direct from the Queen or by her representative in the government of this colony, have in fact no legal force whatever. If the acts mentioned in Mr. Shortlands Proclamation were illegal before he issued it, they are illegal now; if they were legal before, they are legal now ; and the issuing of the Proclamation gives him no additional power to punish or to award damages beyond what he before possessed. — W. Sped. July 26: The Mechanics' Insti'ute, we are glad to hear, is slowly but surely progressing. The benefits of the Library are becoming appreciated, and newspapers of the Mother-country, as well as books, are now lent out to the Members. The School is in a flourishing condition, and we trust the working nun. will encouiage this branch of the Institute by sending their children, who will derive the benefit of a good and exceedingly cheap education. — Ibid, July 22. We are happy to see that the schooner Black War. rior has been laid on as a constant trader to the river Hutt, which seems to indicate the increasing trade in that unrivalled agricultural district. — Colonist. ' We have information by the Richmond, from the Chdtam Islands, that 3 whales had been caught at the fishery there, and that a sperm whale had been thrown upon the beach. Notwithstanding the gloom which has so long hung over us. yet from the cheerful accounts which are generally being brought in of the almost unprecedented success prevailing in this very lucrative branch of our commerce, we may hope that lhat crisis will be averted, which has so often been predicted as likely, if not certain, to happen to our infant settlement. — lb.