SCRIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 405, 20 September 1856, Page 7

SCRIP.

REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE. The Select Committee of the House of Representatives, appointed April IS, 1856, to enquire into the report as to the nature and amount of Land Scrip issued in the colony, and already satisfied, and of the amount of all such Land Scrip remaining unsatisfied, and of all outstanding and unsatisfied Land Orders, report as follows: — Your Committee have enquired into the subjects referred to it, and taken evidence thereon. There is some difficulty in ascertaining the particulars, but they find the facts, so far as they can be ascertained, to be as follows. Scrip has been issued to a great extent in all the settlements except Canterbury and Qtago. The circumstances under which the issue*took place were as follows: Ist, as regards the Settlements of Wellington, New Plymouth, nnj

Nelson, which were founded by the New Zealand Company. That body having failed to a great extent to give possession of the lands purchased of it and paid for in cash several years before, or having given possession of worthless land, entered into arrangements for the adjustment of the claims of the purchasers. The basis of the adjustment was, a right of re-selection where desired, and an award of compensation in satisfaction for the loss occasioned by the delay in the performance of the contract.* In Wellington the compensation was on a fixed scale of 150 acres in addition to every 100 originally purchased, in the case of residents, and 75 acres additional in the case of absentees. At Nelson and New Plymouth the claims of residents were adjusted by arbitetion ; those of absentees were taken at a fixed amount. Residents in all cases were required to select within certain districts, then provided by the company; absentees, from districts to be thereafter assigned by the Com? pany, but "which were not assigned before it ceased from its colonising operations. The right of selection was to be exercised within twelve months after any district had been declared open, for it; and, had it been effected during the continuance of the Company's operations, could of course only have been made in those districts within which the Native title was then extinguished ; and in all cases the right of selection was limited to > the settlement within which the claim arose.

The functions and obligations of the Company devolved on the Government in July, 1850, at which date the claims of resident purchasers had been for the most part satisfied by the selection of land, but those of the absentees remained unprovided for.

In 1851 an ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council of the Colony, the effect of which was to reopen the adjustments effected by the Company, and to give to all purchasers under it a right of re-selection, while it provided a Commission to adjudicate upon all claims arising oiit of contracts with that body. Parties desiring to re-select, or in whose favour an award of the Commissioners was made, were to be entitled to Scrip issued the Colonial Government, which was to be taken as cash, at a fixed rate, at all Government land sales within the colony, except those within the limits of the Hundreds in Sfew Ulster, (practically within the present limits of the Province of Auckland) and the town site of New Plymouth. The Ist of January, 1853, was fixed by the Ordinance as the latest time within which claims could be preferred, unless in cases where it was made to appear to the satisfaction of the Governor that the claimant was for some reasonable and sufficient cause'prevented from preferring his claim within thatjperiod. Practically, no limit was adhered to, and your Committee understand that a very large number of the claims were preferred after the date assigned, and without" any reasonable or sufficient cause shown, or required to be shown, for the delay. In the Province of Auckland, Land Scrip has been issued by the Government apparently without legal authority, chiefly in satisfaction of old Land Claims, originating either in purchases from the Natives by individuals, before the establishment of British authority in the Islands, or in the failure of the Government to give possession of Lands which it had soli.

There appears to be six classes of claims, for which Scrip has been, or ought to be issued, and of which a large amount has not yet been exercised by the holders. 1. Original Land Orders of the New Zealand Company, never selected anywhere. Of these there exist, unexercised, in Wellington, as much as may cover 500 acres; a lew in Canterbury, under the Association, probably not exceeding that amount: and in the other settlements perhaps the same quantity in the aggregate. 2. Land Orders (under the New Zealtuul Company) selected in districts where the Native title is still uiuxtinguished, and where possession cannot be given ; of these there are to the extent of about 30.000 acres at Wellington and 2,000 at New Plymouth, 3. Compensation Land Orders (or &ci'ip* under the Company's adjustments, still unsvleeted, a very small amount, say 1,000 acre.■■. 4. Unexeroised Government Scrip, issued under the New Zealand Company's Lain; Chamants Ordinance, before referred to, or ot htvwise, probably 48.000 acres. 5. Ascertained absolute coninwU, not yet fulfilled, probably 1,000 acres. 0, Claims whic;« lv.-y still be ]nv-!-;red mule a

the Nov.- Zealand Company's Land Claimants Ordinance, it" the limit as to time be disregarded, probably 15,000 acres. I The total amount, therefore, which the Grow.rnment is bound to satisfy appears to "be :— 1 ... 1,000 acres o / 32,000------3«av .... 1.000 4 "' . ." . . 48.000------5 ... 1,000 6 . . * . . . 15,000' 98,000 acres It appears to your Committee that the transactions in respect of 'which Scrip has been issued were originally of a purely local character, and that the "privilege of selecting in Settlements ether than that in which, the claim originated (granted by the Ordinance before referred to\ was in no way based on the equity or justice of the case: and that it was unfair in its operation, particularly in reference to Otago and Canterbury, which could not reciprocate. Your Committee think that either on the contemplated transfer of the Waste Lands, or tinder the existing system, (should that transfer not bo effected), all existing claims in reference t? such land* should bo respected. But, consi(U'ri:icr the "[circumstances of the issue of Scrip, sh..* Driciual limitation as to the right of selection within particular districts, and. the length of t'ino during which the holders have had i-very opportunity of selection, those Waste Lai.d? which have been purchased since the t!at^ of the aevrnev of the Scrip holders' title ontjht to be proteetod to a certain extent against its operation*. T;iis th-?y conceive would be best efiec.ed by'irivlng a power in the Transfer of Wasto L,mci<; Act to the Supsrinteadents to proclaim districts v.-itliin which no Scrip should be exeivised: s^cli povrer, however, ought only to extend to these L.mds in which the Xative Title has been extinguished since the passing of the Xew Zc-dknd Company's Oidinance; a course v/hid) practically will confer on the Scrip holders all the priviicgv? in which, by the equity of their ease, regarde-1 in reference to the inception of their cliiius, they can possibly be entitled.. lour Comuiittee also unanimously concur in tliinkiug that the exercise of Scrip should be limited co the respective settlements in which the claim satisfied by it originated, and that in no case should Scrip be allowed to pass at the (ioveminent Land Sales for more than £1 an acre. William Fos, Chairman. Commiuee He om, House of 11-rpresentatives. June 25. 1856.