CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE LAND PROCLAMATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 121, 30 April 1853, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE LAND PROCLAMATION.

Welli?igton, 2nd April, 1853. Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday's date, relating to certain information obtained by you from this office respecting the New Land Regulations, and containing certain queries in reference to the same. In reply to that part of your letter in which you give your view of the character of the communication with this office upon which you founded your affidavit in the Supreme Court, I have the honor to remark that as far as I am individually concerned both you, and anybody else, are at perfectliberty to make any use you think proper of anything you see or hear in this office. With respect to the particular conversation to which your letter alludes, I have only to remind you, that if a confidential character has been assumed to have belonged; to ; it, it is entirely owing to the manner in which you yourself introduced it. For you will remember that you commenced it with particular, and perhaps hardly necessary asseverations of the " pacific" nature of your objects, and the " amicable feelings which actuated you in making your inquiries. This certainly would have led me to expect that, before taking the course you have adopted, you would have given some intimation of your intention to make the answers, obtained after these professions, and in the freedom of an altogether informal interview, the subject of an affidavit in a Court of Law; even if courtesy had not in your opinion required some such notice before commencing the conversation. But as no " condition of confidence" was imposed by me, you will excuse me for declining to discuss the question any further. You ask then two questions and request specific answers to them. To this I have only to say that, ready as I am on all occasions to afford any proper information to those who desire it, yet as you have already taken proceedings against Government in the Supreme Court with reference to the subject of your queries, I cannot but conceive that, even were the information such as Government might think proper to give, the position you have assumed is such as to remove any claim you might otherwise have had to be furnished with it. But you will allow me to state in explicit terms my dissent from the opinion your letter expresses as to the right of any individual to be made acquainted with correspondence between the Governor and Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies. I have &c, &c. Alfred Domett, Henry Sewell, Esq.

Wellington, AprilAth, 1853. SlE) —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd inst,.in which you decline furnishing me with the information requested in my letter of the Ist instant, on the ground that even were it such as the Government might think proper to give, the position I have assumed removes any claim I might otherwise have had to be furnished with it. You also state your dissent from the opinion, which you say my letter expresses, as to the right of any individual to be made acquainted with the Correspondence between the Governor and Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies. The' object of my letter of the Ist instant was twofold -. partly to clear myself from the groundless imputation of having elicited and used confidential information which I was not entitled to in ordinary course ; partly and principally to clear away all doubt as to the fact whether the Executive Government bad received any other Instructions or Despatches than those heretofore referred to. On the latter point I must add that, from the indirect mode in which this question has been met, from observation which have been made, and from your own reticence on the point, doubts have been raised, which ought to be set at rest, as to whether some other Despatches or Instructions may not have been received. As to an opinion which you attribute to me, that any individual is entitled in a general way to be made acquainted with the correspondence between the Governor of a colony and the Secretary of State, you are mistaken in supposing me to express such an opinion. What I have said is, that the public are deeply concerned in knowing the legal extent of the Governor's

power, to make Regulations of Land Sales, and therefore that it is the duty of the Executive Government to disclose it in the most explicit and unreserved manner. In other words, it is important to the public to know the laws they are governed by, whether in the form of Acts of Parliament or of Despatches of Secretaries of State: and it is essential to purchasers of land to be made acquainted with, their title. You seem to lose sight of the important fact that, in this particular case, Despatches have the force of law. Consequently, a refusal by the Government to show them is like (if such a thing can be imagined) a refusal by the Government at home the let the people see Acts of Parliament. I regret that our views differ on this point.. Nor can I assent to your opinion that the position I have assumed—that is, in impugning the legal validity of the recent Proclamation— disentitles me to such information. The question raised is not between private individuals as to private rights; though even in such cases the law does not allow parties in litigation to suppress from each other facts material to the elucidation of their respective rights. But the present case lies far beyond that rule. It is one between the Government and the public, and concerns the title to land which the Government is offering to the public for sale. The fact that I have been concerned in raising the question appears to me rather a ground for supplying me with the information than for withholding it; for if promulgation of law were ! withheld from the public, there should at least j be an exception in favour of persons specially affected by the law, and going into a Court of Justice for defence of their.rights. j But I shall not discuss this point farther. I Considering your letter as expressing the final decision of the Executive Government^ and believing that it involves a general principle of great public importance, I shall take the liberty of submitting the matter to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, in the hope of eliciting some expression of opinion on his part as well as some directions for the future. I should not have troubled you with any remarks on the other portions of your letter, but that they lead to some practical considerations of a public nature. You state that if a confidential character has been assumed to have belonged to what passed at our interview on the 9th instant, it is entirely owing to [the manner in which I myself introduced it,r—for that I commenced it with asseverations of the pacific nature of my objects, and of my amicable feelings. I confess I am at a loss to perceive how such a circumstance could have been supposed to impart a confidential character to our interview. I stated what I felt, and still feel, an. anxious desire for peace;—that is, peace upon right grounds: but in expressing that desire I indicated clearly the fact of a difference between us, leading by an obvious inference to the possibility of a hostile result. No less visionary is your complaint of want of courtesy on my part in not having given you, before commencing our conversation, an intimation that I intended to use the information obtained as evidence in a Court of Law. I really am at a loss to know how to deal with such a complaint. The object of my application was to learn the facts of the. case, with no power of provision as to how they might apply,—certainly without any purpose of using them in any proceedings at law, which could not at the time have been in my contemplation, and which only have been rendered necessary by the course which the Executive Government has subsequently adopted. The pacific sentiments which I expressed were, I can assure you, perfectly sincere. If I have been compelled to take measures which may seem hostile to the Colonial Government, the blame does not rest with me. Immediately on arriving, having satisfisd myself to the best of my judgment that the Land Proclamation was invalid, I addressed a letter to his Excellency pointing out specific legal objections to it; objections which have been since affirmed on an ex parte hearing by the Supreme Court. I. prayed him, in an amicable spirit and respectful manner, to reconsider the measure. I know not what more pacific course 1 could have taken. I received a reply from yourself, stating that my objections should be laid before the Law Officers of the Crown for their consideration. With that I was perfectly contented. It appeared to me the proper and usual mode of proceeding. Had it been followed, and had, according to invariable rule, further action been

suspended till their opinion had been obtained, the litigation which has ensued would have been prevented. But on the following day, without further notice or communication, we found to our surprize the Proclamation gazetted, leaving us no alternative but an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court to protect the rights for which we are contending. May I ask which is the party to complain ? Furthermore, considering the question to be one of a purely public kind, involving no private or personal difference, we desired that it might be argued and settled as speediiy, as accurately, and as amicably as possible. We offered the Government every facility on our part, by lending papers to the Attorney-Gene-ral, and declared our readiness to make any arrangement that might suit the Government's A convenience. Have we been met in a corresponding spirit? Observe, that if our objections to the Proclamation are valid, as they have been hitherto been held by the Supreme Court,' the course we are taking is not merely in furtherance of our own object, which is to leave the settlement of the Land Questions to the General Legislature,—but it tends also to relieve the Government from grave responsibility, and the public at large from the risk of buying land with an unsold title. But the Government has thrown every impediment in the way of meeting the matter fairly and on its merits. We desired to have at least a preliminary hearing before the 29th ultimo, the day fixed for opening applications under the new Regulations. Technical objections having been raised to such a hearing, which the Government refused to waive, we proposed, at the Judge's suggestion, the hearing might be fixed for the 30th ultimo, leaving the Court a few days for full consideration of the matter, with an understanding that nothing should be done in the meantime under the Proclamation. The Government declined making any such arrangement. They would permit no pause : they would not suspend proceedings even for a day. This, though indicating a spirit of determined hostility, and a refusal of all terms of accommodation, would have been less open to remark, had the preparations for opening the land sales been in themselves complete, and the business ripe for commencement. But it was not so. Pardon me for saying,, what is matter of universal remark, that the whole proceedings have been characterised with unique precipitation. I might use a stronger expression. The.Proclamation, dimly shadowed out in a' few preceding numbers of a newspaper, wasdated the 4th ultimo, was published in the Gazette of the 10th ultimo, and the notice fixing the 29th as the day for opening the applications was inserted in the newspapers some days after. A fortnight's notice, or thereabouts, is all which the public of the Wellington District has had of this important measure—a fortnight's notice to a public, many of them no doubt engaged in distant settlements, all of them spread over a field to traverse which from end to end would take a longer time. The whole extent of Crown Lands, surveyed and unsurveyed, including now for the first time new and distant^ districts, just acquired from the natives, and, as I am. told, hitherto unproclaimed, was thus suddenly and as it were by surprise thrown down for unlimited selection. Within the period of a fortnight, intending purchasers were thus called on to make their arrangements, to see the lands, to determine whereabouts to fix their choice. Agents of absentee Scrip-holders, some holding orders to the extent of 50,000 acres, were required to make instant selection, or to forego the advantages of early choice. It was in fact matter of physical impossibility. But what occurred on the 29th ? On that, day it was arranged to receive applications for one hour, from 10 to 11 a.m. At 11 the list was to be closed, and a ballot was to take place, and the right of priority of choice, involving possibly thousands of pounds in value, was to be determined by the order of drawing. Thus parties failing to come in at the appointed time were to suffer a kind of penalty, by being excluded from competition for lands which they might desire. It was obvious, as the result " proved, that only a very few, and those very fortunate individuals, could benefit by this arrangement, —one said to be intended for general advantage, and specially for the working men and small capitalists, who could least of all profit by it. ; Still the objection to this course of proceed-' , ing would have been less strong, if the prepa-

rations of the Government itself bad been perfect and complete, and if full means had been at hand, even in that short space of time, to satisfy and supply information to intending ir purchasers. Was it ever heard that a private individual offered his property for public competition without making known fully and widely the nature and precise extent of the property he was about to dispose of? I attended at the Land Office on the morning of the 29th, in company and by arrangement with parties largely interested as Scrip-holders and anxious to select lands. We were present from about a quarter to 11 till after the ballot had closed. Permit me to state and here to place on record what I there witnessed. I am } sure it would of itself prove how desirable delay, even for a few days, would have been, even for the sake of the objects of the Government itself. We asked to inspect the maps of the country laid open for selectiou. We were referred to the Survey Office, whither we went. The hour of 11 was then past; the list for ballot was closed; hut the map of the Port Nicholson District was then in course of being finished. It was not brought into the public room and laid on the table for inspection until after the ballot had began. None of the other maps were in the public room. We only obtained a sight of them after repeated applications, and not till after 11 o'clock. When produced, instead of being complete maps of the whole country offered for choice, they comprised (with the exception of the Ahuriri District) only parts of Districts, consisting of old surveyed sections not exceeding in extent, as far as I could judge, one-third of the country opened. As to the Ahuriri District, the map produced was, as I was informed, merely a sketch survey, not trigonometrical nor topographical, and therefore necessarily inaccurate and affording no local information. lam informed that the Ahuriri district has never yet been proclaimed as open for selection. It is, I believe, distant from Wellington upwards of 150 miles —equall am told to ten clays' journey. So that no intending purchaser could by possibility have had an opportunity of forming a judgment as to selecting there ;at least none but parties, ,of whom some were present;who might have had better opportunities, for the purpose than the public at large. T will not farther criticise the proceedings which then took place—except to say that the precipitation with which the Crown Lands appear to have been hurriedinto the market, without surveys or maps, without- adequate notice, without means afforded to the public of seeing, judging, and making choice for themselves, has produced, as must obviously have been the result, extreme dissatisfaction. ,-.■. Two protests against the proceedings were made in; my presence ; another, I have since heard, has been given in. ; My object in calling your attention to these facts is not to complain or cast reflections on the public officers engaged in this department: I have no'means of judging how far they may, or may not, be responsible for what has occurrsfd :-r-but it is to impress upon you the importance of delay—of suspending proceedings, if only for the practical object of supplying those many deficiencies which I have taken the liberty of pointing out. It would be superfluous to dwell upon the confusion and inconvenience otherwise likely to result, to point out the certainty of disputes and litigation, the opportunities of unfair advantage by one applicant over another, and the general dissatisfaction which must result, which has in fact already resulted. I am told that an understanding was come to (a perfectly fair one) with the scrip-holders to give them two months to select their lands within the Company's Settlements. lam sure that,jif that be a reasonable delay as regards selection within the Company's Settlements, the case of the Ahuriri district requires postponement for a much longer time. _ We have received notice of an intended motion on Tuesday next to set aside the Injunction already obtained, oh the ground of some technical informalities. I will not pretend to rjs)eculate upon the result of that application. Its object of course is to unfetter the Government, and, without touching the merits of the case, to leave it at liberty to pursue its course under the new regulations. Under the circumstances I have mentioned, I beg you to receive this as a protest against that course of proceeding. I request that copies of our correspondence may be forwaided to His Excellency the Go-

vernor-in-Chief by the first opportunity. I think it right to apprize you that it is my intention to make it public, for the information of the colonists whom it so deeply concerns. I have, &c. Henry Sewell. Alfred Domett, Esq.

Wellington, April 6, 1853. Sir, —I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant, and to acquaint you that in compliance with your request copies of this correspondence shall be forwarded to His Excellency the Governor by the first opportunity. I have, &c. Alfred Domett. Henry Sewell, Esq.

Wellington, April 8, 1853. Sir,—With reference to my letter of the 4th inst., I have now to communicate to you officially the fact that the motion to set aside proceedings in the suit of Dorsett v. Bell, which I stated to be pending, has been withdrawn and the Injunction obtained on the first hearing will be forthwith sealed. After Jhe full opportunity which has been afforded to the Executive Government of meeting the case on its merits by a motion to dissolve the injunction, and in particular after the ineffective attempt made to set aside the proceedings on technical grounds, I am at liberty to assume the present judgment of the Court as binding authority, at all events till revised on a fuller and more solemn hearing. Under these circumstances, I venture respectfully to submit to you the propriety of forthwith suspending all proceedings under the Proclamation, and that instructions be given to the Crown Commissioners in other districts to suspend proceedings accordingly. I would remind you that the judgment of the Supreme Court, though given in a case specially referring to the Wellington Settlement, was based on general grounds, applicable throughout the whole colony. I refer you on this point to the Reports of the Judgment in the two local newspapers. His Honor the Judge declared his opinion that the Proclamation itself was issued without sufficient authority, and that all persons, no matter in what Settlement,purchasing land under it would buy with an unsound title, and would be liable to have their grants set aside by scire facias. Injustice to the public, therefore, no less than out of proper deference to the Supreme authority of the law, I respectfully submit to you the propriety of adopting the course I suggest, viz.—of issuing instructions forthwith to suspend proceedings. Delay in this respect may lead to serious mischief. I am especially anxious that such instructions may be given to the Crown Commissioner of the Canterbury District, where, as you know, questions of boundary and title between the Canterbury Association and the Government are still unsettled, and the boundaries generally are undefined. The attempt to put the Proclamation in force under existing circumstances in that District will lead to inevitable litigation and confusion, which can only be avoided by instructing the Commissioner to suspend proceedings. The same rule ought obviously to apply to other Settlements. I am on the point of returning forthwith to Canterbury, and shall feel obliged by your, earliest consideration of the matter. I have the honor to be, &c. Henry Sewell. A. Domett, Esq.

Wellington, 9th April. 1853. Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the Bth inst. in further reference to the proceedings in the suit or Dorset v. Bell. I have, &c. A. Domett. H. Sewell, Esq.

To the Rt. Hox. Sir J. Pakington, &c. Wellington, April 12, 1853. Sir, —I have the hoiior to transmit to you copies of the following documents and correspondence, viz.:— Letter from myself to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, dated the 9th March, 1853. Letter from the Hon. the Civil Secretary to myself, dated 4th March, 1553.

Proclamation of Land Regulations, dated the 4th March, 1853. Bill filed in the Supreme Court in the case of Dorset v. Bell, 22nd March, 1853. Letter from myself to the Hon. the Civil Secretary, dated the Ist April, 1853. His reply, dated 2nd April, 1853. Newspapers, dated April 2nd, 1853 {Wellington Independent and New Zealand Spectator), containing the Judgment of the Supreme Court in Dorset v..8e11. Notice of motion to set aside the proceedings, dated Ist April, 1853. Letter from myself to the Hon. the Civil Secretary, April 4th, 1853. Reply from him, dated April 6th, 1853. Notice of withdrawal of motion, dated the 6th April, 1353. Letter from myself to the Civil Secretary, dated April 8 th, 1853. His reply, dated April 9th, 1853. I beg respectfully to call your attention to the matter contained in the foregoing documents. The case is this. His Excellency the Gover-nor-in-Chief, having determined (for reasons of policy which I do not presume to criticise) to alter the price of land throughout the colony, has assumed the power of effecting that object by means of a Proclamation, which appeared in the Government Gazette of the 10th March last, a copy of which is transmitted. I found this measure already matured, and on the point of being promulgated, when I arrived at Wellington on the 7th of March last. From my official connection with the Canterbury Association, —from the active part I had taken in the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act, —and for special reasons connected with the future arrangements of the Canterbury province,—l felt deeply anxious that the benefit intended by the Constitution Act, of leaving the management of the Waste Lands to the colonists themselves, and letting them settle the question of future land price, should not be practically frustrated. I may add that, as a land-owner in the colony, (though to an inconsiderable amount,) I felt myself entitled to interpose in the proceedings. Having giving the subject the best consideration in my power, I addressed my letter of the 9th March to his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, respectfully pointing out specific objections to the legal validity of the contemplated proclamation ; objections which have been since affirmed by the Supreme Court of the colony. I received a reply dated the 10th March, "from the Civil Secretary, stating that my letter should be laid before the Law Officers of the Crown for their consideration. I may be permitted to observe that such appeared to be the obvious and suitable course of proceeding upon a question of such vital importance, and affecting the title to all lands which might he sold under the new system. I believe I am not incorrect in stating that the invariable practise in such cases (at least in England) is to suspend proceedings waiting the opinion of the legal authorities referred to. Nevertheless, on the following day the Proclamation was Gazetted, without notice or communication to me; leaving no alternative but an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court for the protection of the rights for which we were contending. The question raised excited great public interest. I may say it roused a strong feeling of opposition ; —not so much in reference to the policy or impolicy of the measure itself, as to what was regarded as an arbitrary and illegal act. Mr. W. Dorset, an old and highly respectable settler, came forward to contest the point; and on the 22nd March a bill was filed on his behalf as plaintiff against Mr. Francis Dillon Bell, the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Wellington District, praying for an Injunction to restrain proceedings under the Proclamation. I transmit a copy of the bill, which fully sets forth the whole case. The points raised by the bill were partly of a special kind, affecting the Settlements of the New Zealand Company at Wellington, Nelson, and New Plymouth in a particular manner, —partly broad and general, affecting the whole Waste Lands of the colony, and the Governor's authority generally to issue the Proclamation. I shall have occasion to notice presently the Judgment of the Supreme Court in reference to this distinction. An application of this nature is what is termed an ex-parte proceeding. The Injunction prayed for could be obtained merely at the in-

.stance of the moving party, leaving the opposite party afterwards to shew cause for setting it aside. But in a matter of such great public importance we desired, on every account, that it should be argued and disposed of upou the fullest view of the'merits, and as speedily as possible. There was a special object in obtaining ' a satisfactory decision of the Supreme Court before the 29th March, the day fixed for bringing- the Proclamation into force. We communicated with the Executive Government accordingly, through Mr. Bell, the Crown Commissioner, and the Attorney-General, to whom we furnished the papers. We expressed our readiness and anxiety to make any arrangement for a hearing which might suit the Government's convenience, consistently with getting the matter disposed of before the 29th. The Executive Government declined coming to any arrangement for the purpose. In consequence of some technical difficulties, his Honor the Judge suggested that the hearing should be postponed till the 30th March, the day after that fixed for commencing proceedings; but he suggested at the same time (to avoid the obvious difficulties and risk to the public of opening Land Sales, and possibly involving contracts with purchasers, under a measure the validity of which was in question,) that such postponement should take place with an under- i standing that nothing should be done in the J meantime under the Proclamation. His Honor j further desired, in order that he might have time j for full consideration upon a matter of such grave importance, that a few days farther should be allowed far his decision, upon a like understanding. A proposal to that effect was made to the Government, but was declined. The Government would enter into no terms'of.arrangement, and would not suspend proceedings even for a day. On the 29th March, pursuant to the Proclamation, proceedings were commenced, and applications for land were received by the Crown Commissioner. I beg to refer you to my;letter of the 4th of April to the Civil Secretary, for ! a description of what occurred on that occasion. On the 30th March, the case was heard before the Supreme Court. Nobody appeared on i behalf of the Crown Commissioner or the Government. I transmit copies of two local newspapers of opposite politics, as furnishing a correct report of the judgment of the Court. The Injunction was .granted; and I venture respectfully to solicit your attention to the. grounds on which the decision of the Court was based. It affirmed in effect those objections which I had previously pointed out to His Excellency, in my letter of the 9th of March. It farther declared that the Proclamation itself was issued without sufficient authority; and that all grants of land under it, whether in the Company's Settlements or elsewhere, would be liable to be set aside. The Executive Government might (if it had so pleased) have obtained a review, and possibly a reversal of this judgment by a motion, in ordinary course, to dissolve the Injunction. Such a motion would have again brought the case before the Court, with any new facts or arguments, so as to have disposed of it finally upon its true merits. In order to elicit the true facts, I made an j application, by my letter of the Ist of April, { 1853, for specific information as to what new ! Royal Instructions or Despatches had been re- i ceived by the Government respecting the. regulation of Land Sales, &c. I conceived myself entitled to that information on the grounds set forth in my letters of the Ist of April and the 4th of April, to which I respectfully pray your attention. The Government declined to accede to my application. On the Ist of April, we received a notice from Mr. King, a private solicitor specially engaged in the case, of an intended mr.ion to set aside the proceedings on «ro tnds of alleged informality. I shall not critici-.e them further than to remark, that they indicated clearly an intention if possible to evade a decision of the question upon its real merits. In consequence of this notice, I addressed to the Civil Secretary my letter of the 6th inst., which was intended as a Protest against tie Government's proceedings. I' would incidently invite your attention to that letter; jis supplying a description of-the manner im which the Government had prepared

itself to institute proceedings under the Proclamation. On the night previous to the intended hearing of Mr. King's motion, we received a notice of withdrawal, which I transmit. I thereupon addressed, on the Bth instant, a letter to the Civil Secretary, pointing out that as the case now stood I was at liberty to assume the Judgment of the Supreme Court to be binding authority, till reversed upon a more full and solemn hearing; that the effect of that Judgment was to declare all sales of land made under the proclamation throughout the colony invalid: and I requested that instructions might be issued to the Crown Commissioners in other Districts, and particularly to the Crown Commissioner of the Canterbury district, to suspend proceedings under the Proclamation. I pointed out the inevitable litigation and confusion which must otherwise ensue. To that letter I received a reply, dated the 9th inst., virtually declining to accede to, or even notice, my application. I am now about to proceed to Canterbury; and shall, I fear, there find that the Commissioner of that district has commenced proceedings under the Proclamation, which I shall be under the necessity of taking legal steps to set aside, in accordance with the judgment of the Supreme Court. I need not point out the difficulty, confusion, litigation, and trouble, which must thus arise from the proceedings of the Executive Government. In the meantime, I am given to understand that new objections of a purely technical kind are likely to be taken to the proceedings in the Supreme Court; objections which, so far as I can learn and understand them, are as unimportant in themselves as they are groundless in law. But the requirements of my own business necessitate my immediate departure from Wellington for Canterbury. I have remained here a fortnight without any movement on the part of the Executive Government indicating an intention to meet the case on its -merits. I cannot remain here for the purpose of contesting such a question upon such grounds of defence. Indeed a private individual like myself has no means of contending against a government armed with large powers, ample funds, and many opportunities of evading the authority of the law. But, conceiving that the proceedings in question, involve on the part of the Colonial Government a violation of the spirit of the Constitution Act, a breach of legal contracts and express provisions of Acts of Parliament, a neglect of specific and very precise instructions of her Majesty's successive Secretaries of State, a refusal to furnish public information with which the public is entitled to be made acquainted, a plain intention to force into execution an illegal measure against and in spite of the highest authority of the Law in the Colony, and to attain that object by a system of defence unsuited to the dignity of the Government and calculated to obstruct the course of justice;— Believing, farther, that the proceedings of the Colonial Executive are calculated—indeed certain—to produce great discrepancies and confusion in the administration of the Crown Lands, to mislead the public into dealings for land with no means of offering a sound and valid title, and are sure to give rise to widespread and interminable litigation—l submit the whole case to the consideration of her Majesty's Government, respectfully praying, that such steps may be taken in the matter as the circumstances may seem to require. I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, Henry Sewell.