LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL..

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 125, 11 August 1847, Page 2

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL..

Saturday, 7th August, 1847. Pieseut— The Governor, and four Members ; absent — Mr. Domett. The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. The Governor requested tbat the honourable memberi who had given notice of motions for

that day,~would consent to have them postponed to' Tuesday, in order that he might have the opportunity of layinf on the table several very important documents relative to the Land Claims. The various Bill* which stood in order for Saturday's consideration, were, on the motion of the several Members who had charge of them, posl poned to Tuesday. The Governor then laid on the table the following documents, which were read to the Council.

Extracts from Despatch No. 41. Dated Downing street, 10th February, 1847. "The series of your despatches, which I enumerate in the margin, exhibit so clearly the injulious tendency of those measures, and the necessity of resorting to some prompt and effectual remedy, that I think it needless to enlarge on those topics. My immediate purpose is rather tjt satisfy to the utmost of my power, the demand Jtfhich yon m,ike for the support and assistance of Her Majesty's Government, in arresting the progress of the danger which you anticipate from Governor Filzroy's decision on this subject The steps taken by yourself with this view, appear to me to have been judicious. I approve otyour determination to allow all claimants under the proclamations of the 26th March, and of the 10th October, 1844, or under the notice of the 7th December in the same year, to send in tjieir claims within a prescribed period, on pain of the exclusion of them, i approve of your projected appointment of a commission to repot t on every purchase, and your decision not to issue, except under very special circumstances, any gram to any such purchaser until you shall have received the further instructions of Her Majesty's Government." "These measures, however judicious in themselves, are, as you have pointed out, quite inadequate to encounter an evil' of such magnitude. The effectual lemedy must be of a diffeient chaiader, and must be taken under the immediate authority of Her Majesty's Government. On referring to the official correspondence, 1 find that Governor Filzroy's fust Proclamation, vaiving the Crown's right of pre-emption, was dated on the 2Glh March, 1844. It formed one of a great body of enclosures in his despatch of 15th April in the same year. The effect of that Proclamation was to require the payment to the Crown of Ten Shillings in respect of every nine acres out of ten, of which the pre-emption should be so waived. Six months later, that is, on the 10th October, 1844, Governor Fitzroy issued a second piocla rnation, reducing the payments to the Crown in those cases, from Ten Shillings to one Penny an acre. This last Proclamation was transmitted by the then Governor, on the 14th of the same month of October, 1844. Lord Stanley's Despatch of the 30th November, 1844, though disapproving the first of these .Proclamations, gave a distinct, but reluctant Sanction to it. On the 27th June, 1845, his Lordship, in his Despatch of that date to 3 out self, directed you to recognise any sales which Governor Fitzroy might have sanctioned under hfs second pioclarnation. But his Lordship expressed his opinion, that it was a most impolitic arrangement, and earnestly impressed upon you the inexpediency of allowing s>uch purchases for the future. On the 14th August, 1845, Lord Stanley recurred to the subject, and expresed his desiie that the practice might be discontinued as soon as it could be safely done, and he explained that he had understood the first proclamation as limited to a particular district, which lie proceeded to define, and he slated his eai nest wish to revert to the original plan of prohibiting all direct purchases from the natives. Theiesult therefore seems to be that the first, or (as it has been called), the " Ten Shilling an acre" Proclamation, has been sanctioned by Her Majesty 'b Government, in reference to the particular district defined by Lord Stanley $ that the " Penny an acie" proclamation (as it has been termed), has been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government to this extent, viz.— that any sales which Governor Fitzroy might have sanctioned under it, we) c to be recognised. To whatever extent the faith of the Crown is thus pledged to the purchasers, it must bemaintained inviolate be the consequent inconvenience what it may. But, except to the extent to which any such pledge has been given, Her Majesty remains perfectly free to take such measures as the welfare of Her kubjectsin New Zealand requites. In assuming the right to issue any such Proclamation, your predecessor was plainly exceeding his lawful authority. '1 his must be perfectly obvious to any one Mho reads the Royal Charter, Commission and Instructions, which enacted and limited his powers. But though Captain Fitzroy thus exceeded his authority, in a manner •which, even if, had there been no other reasons for doing so, would have rendered it in'dispens. able that he should be removed from the government of New Zealand, to refuse now to acknowledge the Claims of individuals, founded upon acts done by him while be was in the xeicise of the powers confened upon him byHer Majesty's Commission, would be iuexp dient, since it might unjustly affect persons who have availed themselves of the Pioclama'.ion, in ignoiance of the defective authority on which they rested, and, also because it might very injuriously impair the authority of those who exercise the power of the Crown in its distant colonial possessions, thus to establish the piinciple that their exceeding their authority, vitiated their acts, and that private individuals cannot safely regulate heir conduct upon the principle that whatever a Governor may do under his • Commission, is to be assumed to be lawfully and properly done, until the contrary is declared by superior authority. While iheiefore, on the giomicl of Captain Fitzroy's having disobeyed his mstiuctions, and also on that of the manifest impolicy of the Proclamations of (lie 2Gih March, 1844, and of the 10th October, 1844, and of the Notice of the 7th December, 1844, waiving the Crown's right of pieemption, the Queen is pleased to disallow and annul those acts, and each of them, Her Majesty is nevertheless farther pleased to declare that this older of disallowance shall not prejudice any acts which may htive been done in

strict pursuance of the Proclamation of the 26th March 1844, antecedently to jour receipt of this Despatch, or any acts which may haye a I been done in strict pursuance of, and under the authority of the Proclamation of 10th October, 1844, antecedently to the receipt by the Governor of New Zealand, of Lord Stanleys Despatch of the 27ih June, 1845. It is Her Majesty's further pleasure that all such acts so done before such respective periods shall be as valid and effectual as if the Proclamations under which respectively such acls may have been done had been confirmed and allowed by Her Majesty. Having thus reconciled the observance of the faith of the Crown, with the prospective abroga tion of these unfortunate acts of > our predecessor, it remains for me to observe that the claimants under these Proclamations have a title resting on no other ground but that of a strict and positive legal right, and that their titles have no support from justice, equity, or public poli.cy— • To whatever extent they can clearly bring their cases within the true meaning of Governor Fitz _ Roy's Proclamations to that extent their demands must be satisfied. But it is not merely competent to you, but is your plain dut), to withhold any grant from the Crown, and any aid in any other form, from every purchaser under these Proclamations who shall not be able to prove in the strictest manner that tie has completely and literally satisfied the requisitions of the Proclamations in every particular they contain. You will, therefore, refer every such claim to the Attorney General for New Ulster, calling on him to report whether it is in exact conformity with the Proclamation under which it may be preferred. And )ou will make no Ciown Grant to any such Claimant without the previous certificate from the Attorney General to that effect. It will fuither be necessary that befoie any such Crown Grant be issued, tue Attorney General should certify to you that the natives from whom the purchases may have been made were, according to the native laws and customs, the lealand the sole owners of the land that they undertook to sell. It will be the business of parties claiming the benefit of such sales to produce such evidence as the Attorney General may consider to be required to enable him so to certify ; and they must do this at their own charge without cost to the colonial Treasury. Finally, in every grant which >ou may make in pursuance of these Proclamations, it must be expressly declared that Her Majesty enters into no guarantee or warranty of the title to the lands, save only so far at to engage that the grant shall be considered as barring the title ot the Crown to such Kinds, and as tidusfeuing to the (Grantee any right to the lands, which, at or previously to the date of the Grant, may havt been vested in the Queen." "You will give immediate publicity to Her Majesty's decision, and to the motives* of it, as 1 have already explained them. 1 anticipate that the result will be that of the purchases made under Governor Fiizltoy's Proclamations very few indeed will be sustained. I have no dilliculty iv avowing that it w ill be gratifying to me to leain that such is the result, for the whole Hansaction is one which it is impossible to contemplate without a lively regiol that any persons should be benefited by it at the public expense, and an earnest desire to confine that benefit strictly within the limits which the Ho>al faitu as pledged by Lord Stanley's despatches prescribes. I am Sir, &c. (Signed; GREYTo Governor Grey.