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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 69

" Bay of Islands, "February 4, 1840

" Bay of Islands,

"Sir,—I have the honour to acquaint your Excellency that, immediately on my arrival in the Bay of Islands I issued an invitation to all British subjects to meet me at the the church at Kororareka on the following day, there to hear read Her Majesty's Commission under the Great Seal, extending the limits of the colony of New South Wales, and Her Majesty's Commission under the Royal signet and sign manual, appointing me Lieutenant-Governor of such part of the colony as may be acquired in sovereignty in New Zealand.

"I have now to report that on the day appointed—namely, the 30th ultimo, the ceremony of reading the above Commissions was performed in the presence of a concourse of persons, forty of whom subscribed the document, a copy of which is annexed.

"The proclamations framed by your Excellency and the Executive Council of New South Wales were then read and published—the first announcing that Her Majesty's authority had been asserted over British subjects in New Zealand; the second, acquainting the public that Her Majesty does not deem it expedient to acknowledge as valid any titles to land in New Zealand which are not derived from, or confirmed by a grant from the Crown.

"I have, &c.,

"W. Hobson.

"His Excellency Sir George Gipps, &c., &c., &c."