To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Reigate, 3rd July, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 445, 7 November 1849, Page 4

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Reigate, 3rd July, 1849.

Sir, — I inclose, and beg that you "will publish for the information of the colonists of New Zealand, a document relating to colonial government. The principles which it sets forth, will be brought into debate in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Australian Constitutions Bill, which now stands for Monday, the 16th instant. If those resolutions of Mr. Adderley's should meet, as I expect they will, with general approval in New Zealand, some assistance, would be afforded to Mr. Adderley in his efforts to give practical effect to them next year, if petitions from New Zealand praying that they may be adopted in any Act for the government of the colony, were transmitted without delay to Mr. Adderley. I am anxious in particular to direct attention to the 6th resolution, which relates to the disposal of the waste lands. Lord John Russell announced in the House of Commons yesterday, that the Government intends to alter the Bill relating to the Australian colonies by giving some control over the waste lands to the colonial government. This concession may, I think, be attributed to Mr. Adderley's resolutions, which though not yet published, have been in circulation for some days. It is a very important concession, as regards the principle of colonial control over a matter of the utmost importance to colonies. This matter, the mother country regards with perfect indifference. The impossibility of inducing Parliament to consider the matter and legislate upon it in earnest, and with that intelligence which correctness alone can bestow, has at length induced me to recur to an old doctrine of mine, which is that the whole subject of the disposal of the waste lands is a colonial matter which ought to be handed over to the colonists without any kind of reservation. The colonists of New Zealand will see how the question bears upon them, and the exclusive control over the waste lands of the colony by the New Zealand Company under the provisions of an Imperial Act. If the •colonists agree with me, on this question, they will adopt Mr. Adderley's 6th Resolution. The Company does really nothing with the waste lands. The colonists, if they had full control over them under true municipal government, would do everything with them that would best conduce to colonial prosperity and progress. Their case exactly resembles that of the colonists of New South Wales, Port Phillip, and South Australia, upon whom present laws relating to the disposal of waste land operate as a great tax upon and discouragement of colonization ; and I trust that all the colonies of the Southern Pacific will petition together for the adoption of the principle of Mr. Adderley's 6th resolution. With this view allow me to beg that copies of your Journal, containing the resolutions and this letter, may be transmitted to the Editors of newspapers at Sydney, Ho•bart Town, Launceston, Melbourne, and Adelaide, by the earliest opportunities. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, E. G. WAKEFIBIiD.