Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addiclus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1870. THE WANGAPEKA AURIFEROUS LAND SALE QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 750, 6 January 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addiclus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1870. THE WANGAPEKA AURIFEROUS LAND SALE QUESTION.

After an exceedingly patient investigation of all the circumstances attending the sale of auriferous lands in the Wangapeka district, Province of Kelson, which extended over six days, the enquiry terminated on Thuisday, the 22nd December. Mr Domett has given the conclusions he has arrived at as the result of the evidence taken before him in a report to the General Government, which is quite an extensive document, but which may be .summarised in the sentence with which he concludes, as follows : The consequence is that, in ray opinion, these lands were not rural lands, not having been properly classified as such. That, not being rural lands, they could not be legally sold under the provisions for the sale of rural lands, and that the sale of them was therefore illegal. If this view be correct, it renders of little consequence the solution of the previous question as to whether the lands are included within the boundary of the South-west Gold-fields, which was left undecided. I have now, in conclusion, only onpe again to remark that the above arguments, and the conclusion they seem to tend to, constitute simply an opinion—of no authority over the fights, or supposed rights, of any one ; and that the only power which can authoritatively pronounce upon such rights and interests is the Supreme Court of the Colony, subject itself to appeals, if necessary, to higher tribunals. These are the only authorities which can decide ultimately what that law is, which we trust always to see maintained paramount in this Colony of English-speaking men. Mr Domett's decision was publicly read in the Court at the conclusion of the proceedings, and as it will be seen assumes not to decide the question in a final manner, but leaves the purchasers of the lands to seek a remedy in the Supreme Court. There can be doubt that the investigation has cleared the way for a judicial decision, though we think it quite probable that the purchasers will not proceed to such extremity, but accept the result of Mr Domett's judgment, and leave the field to the gold-digging fraternity. The *'previous question" which was left unsettled, whether the lands-are included in existing goldfields, is one of considerable complication, depending, as it does, on a survey yet to be made. It seems that in the several maps existing of that portion of the Nelson Province the greatest imaginable discrepancies exist in relation to the situation of even the most prominent and important landmarks, not only as to

.their .actual, but their relative situations. Thus, Mount Owen, upon whose exact place the question partly hinges, is found in relation to Mount Arthur in three different directions, and at the same number of varying distances on the official map from which the gold-field boundaries were laid off, on Dr. Haasts map,' and on the Admiralty map, and no person seems to know either why differences exist, or which (if either) of them is correct. Mr Domett is of opinion thac the latter map (the Admiralty, known also as "Stanford's) is the correct one, and that the mount known by the miners as Mount Owen, and from which the line to Mount Arthur should be drawn is the one there marked. If that be the case, it is probable that the "Wangapeka country is actually within the boundaries of the south-west gold-fields. Our contemporary the Nelson Examiner has issued, for the information of the public, an exceedingly well executed lithographic plan shewing the three reputed sites of the boundary known as Mount Ow T en, and the situation of the disputed land intersected by the line drawn to Mount Arthur, showing if that be the correct position of the mount that the disputed land is at any rate partly within the already proclaimed ground.