AUCKLAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 345, 12 March 1859, Page 5 (Supplement)

AUCKLAND.

[From the New Zealander, February 26.] Great anxiety has been felt by all those peisons in Auckland who are capable of understanding the interests of the Piovince, and who deshe sincerely to promote those interests, in consequence of a lepoit which has been industriously ciiculated since the aim hi of the English Mail, that the "Waste Lands Act, 1858," had been disallowed, and that immigration to this Province had been suddenly arrested, by an order from the Colonial Office. In the month of August last, the " Waste Lands Act, 1858," was passed by the Assembly ; this with some special modifications not very important, proposed to maintain the local Ordinances, lelatiug to the Waste Lands which had been enacted in this and other Piovinces of the Colony. The Waste Land Act of the Assembly was reserved, for "the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon," on the 19th of August last, and was, as we have been informed, transmitted to the Colonial Office on the 30th of the same month. About the middle of December, the Governors Despatch, with the Act, would have been in the hands of Her Majesty's Secretary of State. On the Bth ot December, Mr Undei-Sccretary Elliot, addressed to Messrs. Ridgway, the agents of this Piovince, a letter, of which the following is a copy : — Downing street, Dec. 8, 1858. Gentlemen, — The attention of the Secretary of State has been called to a Notice which has been issued by yon, piornising Fiee Giants of Land in Auckland, one of the Provinces into which the Colony of New Zealand is divided, to intending Einigiants, in pursuance of the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of that Province, which was passed under the authority oi the Act of the Geneial Assembly, No. 22, Sess. 4, entitled " the Waste Lands Act, 1856." In order to obviate as far as possible the great inconveniences and loss that must arise to individuals who may have proceeded to the Colony on the faith of this and other Notices of a like description, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is desirous that you should be informed, without delay, that the New Zealand Waste Lands Act referred to was disallowed by the Queen, by an Order in Council, and that such disallowance was communicated to the Governor on the 11th of February last, and, consequently, that the Provincial Ordinance which was based upon it became null and void in its effect sub sequently to the period at which the Order in Council disallowing the General Act was received in the Colony. I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, (Signed) T. Fred. Elliot. Messrs Rklgway and Co. The consternation of the agents and of the friends of this Province in England may be conceived. Protests, remonstrances, deputations to the Colonial Secretary wore tried— in vain ; the Minister could do nothing. It became the duty of Messrs Ridgway, at once, to advise the other agents of the facts, and in that position affairs remained at the date ot the last advices. Theie was, of course, great dissatisfaction and alaim amongst intending emigrants, many of whom had realised their pioperty in England, and were on the point of embarkation. The matter now rcstß wholly with Her Majesty's Advisers. If the Queen's assent be given to the " Waste Lands Act " of the Assembly, all is well. If that Act has been disallowed theie will be confusion in the administration of the Waste Lands, from one end to the other of this Colony, The Auckland Act will be invalid, so also the Otago Acts, the Nelson Acts, and the two recent Acts of the Canteibury Province. Wellington and New Plymouth alone will remain unaffected. Auckland Coal and Mining Company. — Measures have been taken for the formation of a Company to work the Coal Fields recently discovered at Drury, as well as for carrying on other Mining operations. The capital proposed to be raised is £8000 in shares of £1 each, with power (by consent) to increase the capital to £20,000, A Provisional Directory has been organised, and the Company is to be regarded as formed when 4000 shares have been subscribed for.