THE POVERTY BAY ANNEXATION PETITIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 896, 27 September 1866, Page 4

THE POVERTY BAY ANNEXATION PETITIONS.

A corrkspoxdkst writing to us from Poverty Bay, thus alludes to tlie manner in which the petitions to the Assembly for the annexation of Poverty Bay to the Province of Hawkes' Bay, presented by Mr. Douald McLean, the Superintendent of Hawkes' Bay, were gpt: up : — 1 " One of the settlers got up a petition -to the House of Assembly, by Air. McLean's direction, and. of course being an employee of his, is interested in a. considerable degree. There are about forty-three; signatures attached to the document, out of which there are only twelve belonging-to bona fide settlers, the remainder being composed of Sawyers, splitters, storemen, shepherds, and the different people employed by the settlers, five of whom (the settlers) did not sign, and had the affair been gone about in a straightforward public, meeting ..called* alndi. the interests pro. and con. been laid before the settlers, there would have been fewer to sign,— as it was, the document was prepared and taken, round from house to house, and signed without any, or very little consideration as to whether ; the object to be gained was to benefit Poverty Bay or Jlawkes' Bay. I have a strong suspicion that it is intended more for the benefit' of the latter than the former by its main projector. A native has been despatched up the East Coast, as far as. Hacks' Bay to get native signatures."