NEW ZEALAND HERALD, AND AUCKLAND GAZETTE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1842. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 52, 16 February 1842, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND HERALD, AND AUCKLAND GAZETTE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1842. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Monday being the day appointed for the baptism of the heir apparent of the Colonial Secrer tary, a considerable number of respectable persons attended the Council Chambers to witness the imposing ceremony. In honour of the late jamented child of the Attorney General, the Secretary’s son was called “ The Land Claims Bill. A name, alas! too signficantly indicative of a premature and unhappy fate. It was intended that the Attorney General should stand godfather, but being prevented from some unforeseen cause from attending on this occasion, Mr. Cooper took upon himself the usual vow and pledge, which we doubt not he will faithfully and religiously keep, though we fear much, from the unhappy aspect of the child, that Mr. Cooper’s duties, in this respect, will neither be long nor arduous. We were at the time forcibly reminded of the line in Byron, where he asks—- “ Is thy face like thy father’s my child 1” and could not resist the curiosity of ascertaining what likeness this child bore to its reputed father, the Colonial Secretary. We examined each feature so attentively and searchingly, that we were afraid some of the people present might accuse us of rudeness. We must confess it bears in many respects a strong resemblance to the father, but the head decidedly betrays a convict origin—“ the mark of the beast ”is on the forehead. Botany Bay is impressed in very strong characters. The child is altogether curiously formed. The head bears no proportion to the rest of the body—if body it can be said to have—and unlike any other human being that we have ever seen, the cauda equina is prolonged into a huge tail, larger than that of a Cape sheep. It is a monster to all intents and purposes, and the sooner it dies the better. Besides the natural want of conformation, it appears so much affected with the disease vulgarly called the <£ King or Queen’s evil,” that its existence must happily soon terminate. The Governor himself appeared to have been so shocked at its horrid and disgusting form, that he did not express a single wish for its long life or happiness. In fact he, and all the rest who were present, indicated by their looks the utmost abhorrence at

the unseemly sight. To speak plainly, the new “ Land Claims’Bill” was on Monday last, read a first time in Council, and we must do the learned Attorney-General and the sapient Colonial Secretary, the credit of having (this time at least), kept their promise, in giving us a measure infinitely worse than the one which we have thrown out. We hope the independent members will pass it through the Council without one single amendment; they will in this manner, do the colony much greater service than by any eflort at improving. Let the Bill go home to England in its present shape, and we pledge our word it will inevitably seal the doom of every member of the Executive, from the Governor downwards.

_ On this understanding, let the people be ready with their petitions and protests to accompany the Bill/ and we give them our pledge too, that

they will get every thing, and more than they now reasonably ask. We would suggest to His Excellency, the propriety of supplying the Colonial Secretary, or the person who wrote the Bill, with a copy of some English Grammar, and a pocket edition of Johnson’s Dictionary.