G—No. 1

To the Honourable the House of Representatives of New Zealand, in ParHament Assembled; the Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the Province of Hawke's Bay, Respectfully Sheweth— That, at a Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Napier, publicly convened and held on Tuesday the 25th of June, 1862, to take into consideration the proceedings in a Court specially holden in Napier by the Civil Commissioner on the 23rd instant, to try an issue raised on an information, Scully v.Colenso, for the illegal occupation of Native Lauds; it was resolved as follows, videlicet:— Ist. That this Meeting believes the introduction of a Civil Commissioner's Court (from which apparently all other Magistrates are excluded) into a European District, and in a case in which both parties concerned are of the British race, to be an illegal and arbitrary act, as well as utterly distasteful to an English community. 2nd. That the decision given by the Civil Commissioner in the case, Scully v. Colenso, is, in our opinion, directly contrary to the weight of evidence produced in support of the prosecution ; and that it utterly ignores the reasonable, satisfactory, and full explanation afforded by the defendant. 3rd. That having agreed to the first and second resolutions, this Meeting considers the conduct of the gentleman filling the office of Civil Commissioner deserving of the severest reprobation; and that a Petition be prepared and the signatures of persons concurring therein obtained, praying for inquiry into the late extraordinary proceedings. In conformity with the foregoing resolutions we, the undersigned, pray for an investigation at the hands of a Select Committee of your Honourable House, as to the mode in which the case adverted to was conducted, and generally into the operation of the Civil Commissioner's Court when Europeans are concerned. And Your Petitioners will ever pray— Frederick Sutton, Henry Evans, Henry Williams, J. H. Sebley, Peter Searles, R. W. B. Strong, Arthur Ford, James Quin, William Miller, William Lechner, B. D. Danvers, G. H. Stuart, W. H. Frame, John Wood, Thomas Jeffares, James Crawford, Alex. McHardy, Graham Speedy, Thomas Atkinson, W. W. Yates, Murray Anderson, M. Boylan, J. Smith, Neil Campbell, John Buchanan, J. Rose, Thomas Richardson, Samuel Fittall, Nathaniel Williams, James Symons, E. W. Knowles, James Boyle, Charles Mogridge, George Bowman, G. A. Bryan, John Elmes, Richard Trestrail, Robert Sinclair, James Wood, William Oliver, Robert Gilmour, W. F. Palmer, George Thomas, Duncan Kirkpatrick, J. T. Large, Thomas Shepherd,

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PETITION OE INHABITANTS OE HAWKE'S BAY.