Page 5 Advertisements Column 2

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 174, 6 May 1854, Page 5

Honor the Superintendent and the Provincial Council had so readily and so delightedly drawn from my (attempted) removal from office as Commissioner, His Excellency assured me that, "it is a matter of deep regret that you should speak of the arrangements I have made in the manner you do. However I can only say that I had no intention whatever of casting a slur upon you, and I beg that you will not consider I have done so." But I must now beg attention to the following letter addressed to me as Commissioner of Crown Lands by Mr. Domett, as Civil Secretary to Government. I am forced by events and what I have experienced to give publicity at this time to this extraordinary document. My answer, also given, shews that I had never any idea of considering it as of a private nature:—: Colonial Secretaries Office, 9thAprill \SoZ. . . My x>ear Sib, —I have no good news to give you respecting any of the points about which you have lately written. There is no doubt Mr. Watson ought to be turned off that land, and that the Justices of the Peace who fined you ought to be made to feel they have gone too far. But nothing will be done I expect in these matters. The Governor is at Auckland, and will have enough to do about these land affairs and the Supreme Court to occupy his time. By the bye, if Mr. Sewell, who is more troublesome and unscrupulous than most of the scribbling worthies who attack Government, should, as I expect he will, endeavour to drag you into a correspondence about the land, let me advise you to avoid it decidedly by simply acknowledging his letters, and forwarding them to Head Quarters if necessary. Pay no attento him further than that, or you will have enough to do. The Governor would not do anything about the Pasture Regulations, about which I am as anxious as you can be. I think therefore we must try to get the present ones carried out and made the most of. It all depends upon you. I think you should leave the Akaroa business where it is, and lake to settling the Pasture affairs. Let Boys go at once and make a sketch map of all your districts, shewing the probable quantity of land claimed by each applicant. This he can do quietly, quite near enough for practical purposes. When you have got this information, go to Christchurch and arrange the apportionment of the runs as you best can. 1 think if I were you / would not allow in any ease whatever more than 30 or 35,000 acres. I Never mind how many sheep a person has. You are not obliged by the regulations to take the actual number of acres to a sheep which the run might require at present. It is the duty of the run holders to improve their runs, and the larger the number of sheep owned the better the owner can afford to improve the run. You have great discretionary powers, and you should use them to cut down the ruus as much as possible. There is nothing you can do which would be more popular. Nothing that would be more just as well as politic. All this is of five hundred times more importance than settling the miserable Akaroa affairs, and should have been begun long ago. But the fault is not yours. I believe the district North of Hurunui must be put under Dillon, as it is now in the Nelson Province. But I still wish you would send Boys over all your former district to make a sketch survey, or as much of it as you can, because both his sketches and calculations, and your recommendations will be desirable, and the disagreeable and delicate responsibility of cutting down the monopolists will be divided. You however will get the greater part of the credit should the first steps have been taken by you. There is nothing I believe about which the public feeling is so strong ; and no service which they would be more grateful to any one for performing. With respect to my run, ray sheep are stuck at the Wai-au-toa, otherwise they would have been down long since. I don't thick I ought to lose the run on that account, since this really is an accident that could not have been foreseen or prevented, as the rivers have as far as ever I heard, always till this year been fordable at this season. But if you exercise your power of cutting down rigorously, as I hope you will, there will be room enough for every body. Treat me the same as all the rest and I shall not complain. I should think you soon might find runs in plenty were this course adopted. It is suid that several of them have about 200,000