THE QUEEN'S INSTRUCTIONS UNDER THE ROYAL SIGN MANUAL AND SIGNET, ACCOMPANYING THE NEW ZEALAND CHARTER. (Concluded from our last.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 199, 26 June 1847, Page 3

THE QUEEN'S INSTRUCTIONS UNDER THE ROYAL SIGN MANUAL AND SIGNET, ACCOMPANYING THE NEW ZEALAND CHARTER. (Concluded from our last.)

Chapter Xl.— Of the Civil List 1. The civil list fund appropriated for the maintenance of the said respective Governments in pursuance of the said Act of Parliament, shall be applied and appropriated to such specific purposes as the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury for the time being, or any three of them, may from time to time direct and appoint. 2. The due application of the said civil list fund shall be accounted for to the said Lords Commissioners, or in such manner as they shall appoint. S. Copies of all the accounts of the application of the said civil list fund shall be laid before the said General Assembly and the said Provincial Assemblies respectively, for their information.

Chapter XII. — On the Appropriation of ■ the Revenue arising from Laws of the General Assembly. 1. All duties, taxes, rates, tolls, and assessments, imposed or made payable, in virtue of any ordinance of the General Assembly of I New Zealand, shall be appropriated to such specific purposes as by any such ordinance shall be prescribed in that behalf, and to no other, save as hereinafter is excepted. 2. The first application of any such duties, taxes, rates, tolls, and assessments, shall be towards defraying all the expenses of collecting, receiving, managing, and auditing the same. 3. Subject to the preceding deduction, any surplus which may remain of the proceeds of any such duties, taxes, rates, tolls, and assessments, shall be applied to the specific purpose prescribed in the ordinance imposing the same. 4. Subject to all the prece ling deductions, the } roceeds of any such duties, taxes, rates, tolls, and assessments, shall be paid over to the respective treasuries of the said respective provinces for the public uses thereof, and subject to the appropriation of the respective Assemblies of the said provinces respectively. 5. In the apportionment of any such ultimate surplus as aforesaid between the said respective provinces, the part of the surplus to be assigned to each shall bear to the whole of such surplus the same proportion which the

part of the gross proceeds raised and collected within such province may have borne to the total amount of the gross proceeds of any such duty, tax, rate, toll, or assessment.

Chapter XIII.— On the Settlement of tie Waste Lands of the Crown. 1. Charts of the New Zealand Islands shall be prepared with all practical expedition and accuracy, and especially charts of all those parts of the said islands over which either the aboriginal natives or the settlers of European birth and origin have established any valid titles, whether of property or of occupancy. 2. In every district into which the said islands shall be divided in pursuance of these our instructions, shall be kept a registry of the lands therein situate, distinguishing with reference to such charts as aforesaid, the settled lands in such district from the unsettled lands therein. 3. At the capital town of each of the provinces of New Zealand shall also be kept a general registry of the settled and of the unsettled lands in that province, with reference to such charts as aforesaid. 4. It shall be the duty of every person and of every body politic and corporate (other than the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand) to transmit to the registrar of lands for the district in which his or their lands may be situate, a statement of the extent, locality, and metes and bounds thereof, and of the title under which he or they may claim the same, all which statements shall be provisionally registered, immediately on the receipt thereof at the office of the registry. 5. The Protector of the Aborigines, or any officer appointed to act in that capacity by the Governor or Lieutenant- Governor of the province, shall in like manner transmit to the registrar of the district a statement of the extent (as nearly as it can be ascertained) and of the locality of all the lands situate within the same, to which any such natives, either as tribes or as individuals, claim either a proprietary or possessory title, which claims shall also be forthwith provisionally registered. 6. All lands not so claimed and provisionally registered by the time so to be limited as aforesaid, shall thenceforward be and be considered as vested in us, and as constituting the demesne lands of us in right of our Crown within the New Zealand Islands. 7. "Within a time to be for that purpose appointed after such provisional registration as aforesaid of the lands in the said several districts, a land court shall be holden in each, for investigating and deciding on the accuracy and validity of such registrations, which court shall be competent to decide on the accuracy and validity thereof, both as between the claimant on the one hand, and as in the right of our Crown on the other hand, and as between different claimants asserting opposite and incompatible titles to the same lands. It shall not, however, be competent to any such land court to decide upon or to investigate any title to land which at any previous time may have been adjudged to any body corporate, or person or persons, by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction, or which may at any previous time have been granted or assigned by us, or by any Governor-in-Chief, Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, in our name, or in our behalf, to any such body corporate, or person or persons. 8. The several land registries of the said several districts being revised and corrected by the adjudications of the said land courts, an appeal shall lie from such adjudication to the supreme court of civil justice for the province in which the lands may be situate. The registries of the several districts, when so revised and corrected by the adjudication on appeal of such superior courts, shall constitute and be received as final and conclusive evidence of the title to any lands comprised in such registries, and as final and conclusive evidence of our title in right of our Crown to all lands not comprised therein. 9. No claim shall be admitted in the said land courts on behalf of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand to any lands situate within the said islands, unless it shall be established, to the satisfaction of such court, that either by some act of the Executive Government of New Zealand, as hitherto constituted, or by the adjudication of some court of competent jurisdiction within New Zealand* the right of such aboriginal inhabitants to such lands has been acknowledged and ascertained, or that the claimants or their progenitors, or those from whom they de ived title, have actually had the occupation of the lands so claimed, and have been accustomed to use aud enjoy the same, either as places of abode, or for tillage, or for the growth of crops, or for the depasturing of cattle, or otherwise for the convenience and sustentation of life, by means of labour expended thereupon. 10. For ensuring the observance of the preceding rules respecting the preparation of the charts and the keeping of the registries aforesaid, and for determining the methods to be followed in drawing up and transmitting such claims as aforesaid, and in the provision-. •1 registration of them, aud for aicertsininf

and regulating the constitution and proceedings of ihe said land courts, and the mode of proceeding upon appeals to be thence brought to the said supreme courts, and otherwise for carrying into full effect these our instructions respecting the several matters aforesaid, the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand shall, by proclamation to be by him for that purpose issued, make and establish all such rules as, in pursuance of the powers in him in tha: behalf vested by the said recited act of Parliament and Charter, and by these our instructions, it may be competent to him so to make anrl establish, and, l so far as it may not be competent to such Governor-in-Chief to establish such rules, it shall be his duty to propose to the respective legislatures of the said respective provinces, the enactment of all such laws as may be necessary for that purpose, that so the extent and limits of the demesne lands of us in right of our Crown within the said islands, available for future settlement, and the extent and limits of the lands of the aboriginal inhabitants, and the extent and limits of the lands of the inhabitants of European origin, may severally be distinctly ascertained. 11. No conveyance, or agreement for the conveyance, of any of the lands of, or belonging to, any of the aboriginal natives, in common as tribes or as communities, whether in perpetuity or for any definite period, whether absolutely or conditionally, whether in property or by way of lease or occupancy, which may be henceforth made, shall be of any validity or effect, unless the sa.me be so made (o or entered into with us, our heirs and successors. And for the enforcement and due observance ot this rule according to the full and true intent and meaning thereof, the Gover-nor-in-Chief shall recommend to the said respective Legislatures the enactment of all such laws as may be necessary in aid of the powers by the said Act of Parliament or by us so vested in him as aforesaid. Provided that nothing herein contained shall apply to any conveyance or agreement, if made or entered into by any such aboriginal native or natives of New Zealand, in respect of any lands by him, her, or them, holden in severally, or so holden under any title or tenure iv use in, and known to the law of, England. 12. All the lands so ascertained as aforesaid to constitute the demesne of our Crown in New Zealand are and shall be holden by us, our heirs and successors, in trust for the benefit of our subjects, and especially for the benefit of such of them as have settled, or as shall hereafter settle, within the said islands. 13. The said demesne lands shall, by proclamations to be issued by the respective Governors of fhe said provinces, be divided into counties, hundreds, townships, and parishes, each of which ?hall be exactly defined in such proclamations with reference to such charts as aforesaid of the said islands. 14. No land of and belonging to us in New Zealand shall by us, our heirs or successors, or by any such Governor-in-Chief or other person on our behalf, and on our authority,, be alienated, either in perpetuity or for any definite time, either by way of grant, lease, license of occupation, or otherwise, gratuitously, nor except upon, under, and subject to the regulations hereinafter prescribed. 15. No part of the before-mentionsd demesne lands of us, in right of our Crown in New Zealand, shall be alienated to any person or body corporate, unless the same shall be included within the terms of some proclamation issued by the Governor or LieutenantGovernor of the province within which the same shall be situate, declaring for three calendar months at the least next before any such alienation, that such lands are thenceforward to be within the limits of settlement. - 16. No such lands shall be so alienated unless the same shall have been previously surveyed, and distinguished by an appropriate numerical mark in the chart of the county, hundred, township, and parish within which the same may be situate. 17. The Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of any such province, with the advice of the Executive Council thereof, shall, in such charts as aforesaid, cause to be marked out and distinguished all such lands situate within and forming part of the demesne of the Crown as may appear best adapted for the site of future towns, and especially seaport towns, within the said islands — or as the lines of internal communication, whether by roads, canals, railways, or otherwise — or as places fit to be reserved as quays, landing-p/aces, or otherwise, for the general convenience of trade and navigation — or as places of military or naval defence, or as the sites of churches, courthouses, markets, hospitals, prisons, or other public edifices — or as cemeteries — or as places fit to be reserved for the embellishment or health of towns, or for the recreation of the inhabitants thereof, or otherwise for any purposes of public utility, convenience or enjoy-

merit, in which either th ; whole population of the province, or any large number of the inhabitants thereof, may have a common interest ; all which lands shall be called and be known by the name of Reserved Lands. 18. All such reserved lands, with the exception of such as shall be reserved as the future sites of towns, may, by the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of the province in which they are situate, be conveyed to any body politic or corporate, gratuitously to be holden by them in trust for the public uses for which the same were so reserved, and for none other. 19. The lands reserved as the sites of towns shall be divided into two classes, of which the one shall be called " town allotments," and the other " surburban allotments," the town allotments being such as will probably become the future sites of buildings, the suburban allotments being such as will probably acquire a greatly enhanced value from the close vicinity to such buildings. 20. All the demesne lands of us, in right our Crown, brought by any such proclamation as aforesaid within the limits of settlement, shall be alienated in manner hereinafter mentioned, and not otherwise, the same being, with a view to such alienation, divided into three classes, of which the first class shall consist of such town allotments, and the second class of such suburban allotments, as aforesaid, and the third class of rural allotments. 21. In reference to each town, and to the suburbs of each, the Governor or LieutenantGovernor of the province shall by proclamation determine what shall be the number and extent of the allotments therein, care being taken that in all such town allotments be so made in reference to some convenient plan previously fixed for the erection of such town, and that no town allotments shall be qi eater in extent than will probably be required as and for the site of a single edifice, with such adjacent land as may probably be necessary for the use and enjoyment of the future occupants of such edifice. 22. No rural allotment within the said demesne shall exceed in extent one square mile; but it shall be competent to any such Governor or Lieutenant-Governor to divide any i such allotment for the purpose of such alienation as aforesaid into allotments of one half or of one-quarter of a square mile. 23. Rural allotments shall, by such proclamations as aforesaid, be divided into such as are supposed and such as are not supposed to contain valuable minerals. J24. No part oi the demesne of us in right of our Crown in New Zealand shall be aliena< ted, either in perpetuity or otherwise, either absolutely or conditionally, until after the same shall fitst have been put up to sale at a public auction, of which auction three calendar months' notice shall first have been given by such proclamation as aforesaid. 25. At every such public auction such lands shall be put up to sale in such lots as aforesaid, at a minimum upset price. 26. No rural allotment shall for the present be so put up for sale at any minimum price le.-s than 20s. for each acre of land in such allotment contained. 27. The respective minimum upset prices of rural lands supposed to contain such minerals, of suburban land*, and of town lands respectively, shall always be the same in respect of each separate allotment of the same extent comprised in any one of those several classes respectively. Such upset price shall always exceed the before-mentioned upset price of 20s. an acre, the amount of such excess being from time to time determined by such proclamations as aforesaid, in respect of the allotments contained in each of the said several classes of land. 28. It shall be competent to any person within three calendar months next after any such auction, to become, without any further auction, the purchaser of any lands so put up to sale as aforesaid, and not then sold, by offering and paying for the same the upset price at which the same may have been put up to sale. 29. Immediate payment in cash shall be the indispensable condition of every such sale as aforesaid, whether effected at any such auction, or upon any subsequent purchase aforesaid. 30. It shall be competent to the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor of any such province as aforesaid, to demise fqr any term of years (not exceeding twenty-one) any such rural allotments as aforesaid supposed to contain any valuable minerals, reserving to us, our heirs and successors, a royalty of not less than fifteen per centum on the minerals to be ruised upon and from any such lands, and to introduce into any such lease all covenants necessary for the faithful discharge on the part of the lessee, or those claiming under him, of all the terms and conditions thereof. 31. A separate account shall be kept by the treasurer of each of the said provinces, of the gross proceeds of the said land-sales, rents, and royalties, and of all the costs, charges, and expenses of and incident in any way to the

sale, survey, administration, and management of the said demesne of us, in right of our Crown ; and after deducting from such gross proceeds a 1 such costs, charges, and expenses, the net balance shall be by us held in trust for defraying the cost of introducing into the said respective provinces emigrants from the United Kingdom, or in trust for defraying the costs of such other public services therein, as by us shall from time to time be prescribed by instructions to be issued in pursuance of the said Act of our Parliament under our signet and sign manual, with the advice of our Privy Council. 32. Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall interfere with the promulgation by us, as we may hereafter be advised, of any other and further instiuctions respecting the occupation of lands forming part of the demesne of us, in right of our Crown in New Zealand, by way of lease or license, for any term of years, or for any shorter time, but thai such occupation, leases, and licenses shall be regulated by such further instructions as we shall hereafter for that purpose issue in pursuance of the said recited statute. 33. Provided also, that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be considered as extending, to the temporary occupation of any lands forming part of the demesne of us, in right of our Crown in New Zealand, by any per1 son or persons so occupying the same for the purpose of depasturing sheep or any other description of cattle thereon, under any lease or license to be to any such person for that purpose granted ; but that whatever relates to any such occupation of any such lands, for any such purposes as aforesaid, shall be regulated by such further instructions as we shall for that purpose issue, and in the meantime by such orders as shall in that behalf be made by the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand.

Chapter XIV. — Respecting the Aborigines of New Zealand. 1. The Governor-in-Chief shall, by proclamation, to be for that purpose issued, set apart, as he shall see occasion, particular districts of New Zealand, under the designation of "Aboriginal Districts."" 2. Within such districts the laws, customs, and usages of the aboriginal inhabitants, so far as they are not repugnant to the general principles of humanity, shall for the present be maintained. 3. Within such districts such native chiefs i or others as shall be appointed or approved by the Governor-in-Chief lor that purpose, shall interpret and carry into execution such laws, customs, and usages as aforesaid, in all cases in which the aboriginal inhabitants themselves are exclusively concerned. 4. Any person, not being any aboriginal native, and being within any such district, shall, during his continuance therein, respect and oLserve such native laws, customs, and usages as aforesaid, on pain of such penalties for the violation or breach thereof as may be inflicted on him by the sentence of any court or magistrate in any other part of the province within which such aboriginal district may be situate. 5. The jurisdiction of the courts and magistrates of the entire province shall extend over the said aboriginal districts, subject only to the duty so incumbent on them of taking notice of and giving effect to the laws, customs, and usages of such aboriginal inhabitants as aforesaid, in respect of all such cases as aforesaid. 6. In cases arising between the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand alone, beyond the limits of the said aboriginal districts, and in whatever relates to the relations to and the dealings of such aboriginal inhabitants with each other beyond the same limits, the conrts and magistrates of the entire province, or of the district in which such cases may arise, shall enforce such native laws, customs, and usages as aforesaid. 7. The Governor-in-Chief may from time to time contract or enlarge the limits of any such aboriginal districts, but no such district shall ever comprise any lands which the Governor-in-Chief may by proclamation have declared to be within the limits of settlement.