No. 50. Downing Street, 13th August, 1850

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 518, 2 April 1851, Page 4

No. 50. Downing Street, 13th August, 1850

Sir,— l have not failed to bestow my most carelui consideration on your Despatch" of the numbers and da'es specified in the martin, explaining the £rou-ds on which you had been induced to propose to the Legislature an Ordinance " for Quieting Titles to Land in the Piovince of New Ulster," and sending a copy of that Ordinance itself, to he submitted to Her Majesty. 2. The effect of thii important meisure i« to confirm to tne numerous land claimants under direct purchases from the Natives, the large tracts of land to which they assert a right; or in cases where this may be impossible, from the previous rights of the Native themselves, to confer upon the European claimants an equivalent out of the general landed territory of the Crown. It is needless tor me to recapitulate on this occasion the slight grounds, in equity, of many of the claims in question, or the injurious tendency to th« public interest of finally placing in the possession _of individuals such extensive tracts of land for which ihey have mostly given but a trifling consideration. These views have often been stated before. The best proof of the extent to which you have been alire to them has been evinced by the resistance which, in spite

of much obloquy and unjustifiable opposition, you bare properly offered to the establishment of these large demands. 3. The more deliberate nnd persevering your resistance to these demand* has been, the more I am now disposed to place confidence in the conclusion at which you have arrived, to relinquish further opposition to them ; and I agree with you, that the state of the law, as declared by the Judges of the Supreme Court, renders it indispensable to settle rather than to dispute these claims any further. And, I feel that to expose the Colony to some years more of uncertainty aid litigation on this agitating subject would do more injury to the colony than protracted discussion, though ultimately successful, could do good. 4. As I concur in this opinion, I have only to convey to you nay sense of the skill and loreaight, and tbe regard for the various interest! concerned, with which the de ails of the measure appear to have been framed, and I am satisfied that the colony will hereafter appreciate the advantages which will be derived from tiie settlement you have effected ; I trust that it may be productive of peace and content in the Pro* venee of New Ulster, and that the animosities to which the question gave rise, may speedily be laid aside and forgotten. 5. I have not seen sufficient reason to introduce any Bill into Parliament for the purpose of giving additional authority to the Ordinance. 6. It only remains for me to apprize you that I have laid this Ordinance before the Queea, and that Her Majesty has been pleased to confirm and allow the same, ami I have to instruct you to publish it by proclamation, in the usual and most authentic manner. I have, &c, &c, (Signed) Grey. Governor Sir George Giey, X.C.8., &c , &c, &c