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152 Wellington; but when the sovereignty of Queen Victoria was proclaimed, May 21, 1840, under the Treaty of Waitangi, Governor Hobson by proclamation prohibited the Wellington settlers from conducting any government unrecognized by the Queen. The Wellington residents were not precipitate in complying with the order, and after its publication the captain of a ship was summoned by the colonists' court to answer for an alleged breach of charter. Declining to recognize the court, the mariner was arrested; but he escaped and complained to the Governor.

Immediately a lieutenant and thirty soldiers were dispatched to Wellington with instructions summarily to put down the settlers' government. The lieutenant's task was easy. He was welcomed with cheers, and the settlers, history tells us, "gladly abandoned their own temporary government now that a properly appointed authority was planted among them."

As the seat of government, Wellington contains a large number of public buildings of wood, brick, and stone. Of the Government buildings the most conspicuous are the General Post-Office; the structures separately occupied by the Life Insurance Offices, Printing-Office, Railway Department, Government Departments, Customs Department, and Houses of Parliament; and Government House, the residence of the Governor. The Government Departments Building is said to be the largest wooden structure in the Southern Hemisphere. To these buildings are to be added new houses of