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New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 55, 26 February 1842, Page 2

Yesterday, the “ Land Claims’ Bill” was read a third tire, when Mr. Earp voted against it, and delivered the following Protest, which will have the effect of rendering it a dead letter for at least twelve months, if not for ever. PROTEST. “The Undersigned hereby Protests against the “Land Claims’ Bill” (or the following reasons : “ That it is in the highest degree unjust towards the Old Settlers of the Country, inasmuch as no compensation is awarded them by this Bill, for the time they have already spent in New Zealand; notwithstanding that, to Sir George Gipps’ bill upon which this bill piolesses to be based, a schedule was attached, which schedule was, in fact, the point at which the whole of Sir George Gipps’bill was intended to arrive ; and which provided a scale of compensation for land based upon the time such claimant had been bona fide a settler in New Zealand. “ That, in another point of view, it is still more unjust to the Old Settler, inasmuch as, upon his arrival in the country he paid but a trivial value for his land, which value was, nevertheless, more than its then intrinsic worth ; the subsequent value having been given to the land by Ins labour. That, from the labour and entei prise of the Old Settlers, numerous persons have been, from year to year, arriving in -New Zealand,and the price paid for land has, consequently, increased ; so that, under the present bill, the more recent purchases ot land, will, by the p ovisionsof tins bill, which enacts that they shall receive an acie of land (or every five shillings expended in the purchase of land, obtain land for money or goods, the expenditure ol which they are enabled-to prove before tire Commissioners ; whilst the original Settler, who has lor years resided in the Colony, and has been gradually preparing it for the occupation of the British Government, wtli, trom the comparatively small price he originally paid or his land, and also from the circumstance of his not having originally anticipated the interference of the Government, so that lie may not have provided, or retained, such documents as the Commissioner rnay require, in all cases sustain heavy loss, and itp many cases not be able to prove his claim at all. " That, to the proprietors of land purchased fs om original purchasers from rhe Natives, this bill is altogether ruinous, inasmuch as, by its provisions, they will not be able to obtain a single acre, un ess the claim be proved by the original purchaser himself; even in which case they will be at the mercy of his honesty;—but, in most cases, the original purchasers are either dead or have left the Colony; by either ot w Inch events the Claims cannot be heard at ail,and the present possessors of land will be deprived of their lands altogether, 'i'his cannot be less ruinous to the Colony than to themselves, inasmuch as the majority of such secondary claimants are merchants, and others, bom Australia and the adjacent colonies, who have largely promoted cultivation among the Natives, erected expensive machinery for the purpose of cutting timber, and in various other ways promoied the interest of New Zealand both belore and sines it became a British possession, it being a statistical lact that the Sydney Merchants alone have introduced into the Colony, in capital expended inibe country, and whaling on the coast, nearly half a mdlion stei ling; but, from the provisions of this bill having depiived them of their lands, they wiil naturally withdraw the wreck of their capital from the Colony, and will be disinclined to trade any farther wiihit: added to which, very many of the original claimants to land are deeply indebted lo merchants in Sydney and England, having been credited on their claims to land, w hich this bill gives them but little chance ot obtaining. It s sufficiently evident that men placed in this position can have no alternative but utter luin. “ 1 bat the clauses in the bill which confirmed the titles lo land try the ‘ New Zealand Company’ have all been struck out, on the pretence that they were ‘ contrary to law;’ though they had been inserted i i tfie bill lately thiown out, and in the present bill also The Undersigned makps no comment on this, well knowing that both the New Zealand Company and the Colonists o! Wellington are sufficiently influential and powerful, both at Home and in this Colony, to protect their own interests against the aggressions ot the Government. “ The Undersigned further Protests against the hurrfed manner in which so important a bill as ‘The Land Claims’ Bill* lias been carried through the Council, they having gone into Committee upon the same on the next day to the one on which ihe second reading took place, and into the thud reading on the following day, contrary to the previous practice of the Council, although a very larue number of amendments weie, on the second reading, proposed by Hon. Members, the whole of which required tne most matuie cousideiaiion. and of which the Uadersigued, Irom absence, was not aware. “The undersigned further declares, that he felt himself compelled to be absent Irom the Council on tbe second reading of the bill, iH consequence of the refusal o( His Excellency to permit him lo explain certain charges which were alleged against him in the Council, after a manner and in accordance with a precedent which had before been conceded to Mr, Clendon, viz, lo defend allegations against his political character without any specific motion being made theieon. “The undersigned further declares, that his opposition to the ‘ Land Claims’ Bill,’ has been anogether disinterested, lie not possessing a single claim upon any Lands provided lor by this bill.

“The undersigned fuither protests that the debates upon the Land Claims’ Bill have not appeared in the Supplement to the Government Gazette, according to the rules of the publication or the Debates of Council, during the whole period the two bills have been under discussion. (Signed) GEORGE BUTLER EARP, Member of the Legislative-Council. A uckland, February 25th, 1842,