THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED DESPATCHES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 257, 15 January 1848, Page 4

THE RECENTLY PUBLISHED DESPATCHES.

[From the New Zealand Journal.] -Copy of a Despatch from the Right ••- Hon. Earl Grey to Governor Grey. Downing -street, 16th Jan. 1847. ' S'rß, — I have to acknowledge the receipt fdf your despatch of the 12th June last, No. '52-, transmitting the copy of a letter address--ed-to you by Mr. Clarke on quitting the "office of protector of aborigines in New Zealand. 1 have carefully perused Mr. Clarkes together with the comments which you Imve thought yourself called upon to make on several parts of that statement ; and lam happy to be able to state that I find nothing in 'Mr, Clarkes letter which tends in the least 'io alter the opinion I had previously formed upon 'the transactions alluded to, or to diminish 'my approbation of your policy and measufres. On the contrary, I feel it to be my duty to" say, that the contents of Mr. Clarkes letter, "when considered in connection with his 'conduct, and his acquisition of bud from the "native's, haVe produced upon my mind an imyressioD directly the reverse of that which "he' seems to have desired to create, an.l highly unfavourable 'to himself. — I have, &c. (Signed) Gre#. Tftis Excellency Governor Grey, &c.

.Copy of A ( Despatch from the Right t Hon. Earl Grey to Governor Grey. . , r Downing-street, Feb. 10, 1847. f , <$ir, — I have considered, with, the attention which the high importance of the subject demands, the questions you have referred to me .a& arising out of the measures taken by your predecessor in the months of March, October, and December, 1844, for surrendering the' exclusive right of the Crown, to purchase lands from the natives of New Zealand. The series of your despatches which I .enumerate in the margin, exhibits so clearly the injurious tendency of those measures, and the necessity ' r of resorting to some prompt and effectual remedy, that I think it needless to enlarge on those topics. My immediate purpose is rather to satisfy, to, the utmost of my power, the Remand which you make for the, support and of her Majesty's Government in arresting the progress of the danger which you anticipate from Governor Fitzroy's decisions on tiiis subject. .The' step's; taken by .yourself with this .view, appear to me to have been judicious. I approve ■#f your determination to call on all claimants, ta/ider the proclamations of the 26th of March, gad of. the 10th- October, 1844; or under the notice of the '7th December in the t same<year, to sejnd in their claims within a prescribed pe-riod,-on pain' of the exclusion of them. lapyour projected appointment of a Comgfiission to report on every purchase, and *yofir Mpeteion not-tb issue, except under very&pe«i'al circumstances, any grant to any such purfebasef, until you shall have received' the fur--*bw instructions of her Majesty's Government. - Further, I concur in the propriety- of your aHdress to some of the-, officers «f your jQrevernment, who had availed - themselves pf 'Gaptaiii Fitzroy's proclamations and notice to become purchasers of lands. 'I'dee/ly regret im&h you, that any \xof the* members of the Jokureh Missiohary^ Society* should have engaged in this traffic, \ In- the particular, ease ■ojyjMrl Pokcki'.yau' judged, rightly in refuse ing to act at all without instructions' from 'her fji jyfiesem^a^urj^, bqwever-judicious in ? themr f^^m'mSmh?^ l^^ quite,!?-

adequate to encounter .an evil of such magnitude. The effectual remedy must be of a different character, and must be taken under the immediate authority of her Majesty's Government. On referring to the official correspondence, I find that Governor Fitzroy's proclamation, waiving- the Crown's right of pre-emption, was dated on 'the 26th March, 1844. It formed one o£ a great body of enclosures in his despatch of the 15th April, in the same year. The effect of that proclamation was, to require tlie payment to the Crown of 10s. 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 proclamation, reducing the payments to the Crown in those cases from 10s. to Id. an acre. This last proclamation was transmited by the then Governor on the 14th of the same month of October 1844. Lord Stanley's despatch of the 30th No"vember, 1844, though disapproving the first of these pioclamations, gave a distinct, but : reluctant sanction to it. On the 27th of June, 1845, his lordship, in his despatch of that date, to yourself, directed you to recognize any sales which Governor Fitzroy might have sanctioned under his second proclamation. ~ But his lordship expressed his opinion that it was a most impolitic arrangement, and earnestly impressed upon you the ine>pediency of allowing such purchases for the future. On the 14th August 1845, Lord Stanley recurred to the subject, and expressed his desire that' the practice might be discontinued as sdon as it could be safely done, and he explained that he had understood the first proclamation as limited to a particular district, which he proceeded to define, and he s'.ated his earnest wish to revert to the original plan of prohibiting all direct purchases from the natives. The result, therefore, seems to be that the first, or (as it has been called) tiie "ten shilling an acre" proclamation, has been sanctioned by her Majesty's Government, in reference to the particular district defined by Lord Stanley; tHat the "penny an acre" 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, were to be recognised. To whatever extent the faith of the crown is pledged to the purchasers, it must be maintained 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 subjects in New Zealand requires. In assuming the right to issue any such proclamations your predecessor was plainly exceeding his lavful authority. This must be perfectly obvious to any one who /reads the Royal Charter, Commission, and Instructions which created and limited his powers. .But though Captain Fitzroy thus exceeded his authority in a manner which, even if there had been no other reasons for doing so, would have rendered it indispensable that he should be removed from the government of New Zealand, to refuse now to acknowledge the claims of individuals, founded upoaacts done by him while he was in the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by her Majesty's Commission, would be inexpedient, siuce it might unjustly affect persons who had' availed themselves of, the proclamations in ignorance of the defective authority on which they rested, and also because it might very injuriously impair the authority of those who exercise the powers of the Crown in its distant colonial possessions thus to establish the principle that their exceeding their authority vitiated their acts, and that private individuals cannot safely regulate their 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, therefore, on the ground of Captain Fitzroy -.having disobeyed his instructions, and also on that of the manifest impolicy' of the proclamations of the 26th March, 1844, and' of th^lOth October, 1844, and of the notice of.the 7dh'December, 1844, waiving- the Crown's right' of pre-emption, the Queen is pleased tp disallow and annul those acts, and each-of them, her Majesty is, nevertheless, further pleased to declare that this order of disallowance shall not prejudice any acts which may have been done in strict pursuance of the proclamation of the ,26th Maroh, 1844, antecedently, to .your receipt of this despatch, or any,;aGts which may have been 'done in strict pursuance' of, and under the authority of the proclamation of 1 Oth< October, 1844,. antecedently to the. receipt,^ by the then' Governor -pf New Zealand, of -Lord Stanley's despajchfof 27-tKJunei 1845. Jtjs her Majesty's further [pleasure^ th.at all, such, acts, so idone before such respectiv^pjeriods^sbgll be as valid a,nd/e.ffe(Cj;uftL $S if. Jtijej.pEoclamatiops' under which* rfippectivety

such acts may have been done, bad been confirmed and allowed by her Majesty. Having thus reconciled the observance pi the faith of the Crown, with the prospective abrogation of these unfortunate acts of your 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 policy. To whatever extent they can clearly bring their cases within the true meaning of Governor Fitzroy's proclamations, to that extent their demands must be satisfied. But it is not merely competent to you, but it is your plain duty, 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 he had 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 you will make no Crown grant to any such claimant without the previous certificate from the Attorney-Gene-ral to that effect. It will further lac necessary that before any such Crown grant be issued the AttorneyGeneral should certify to you that the natives from whom the purchases may have been made were, according to native laws and customs, the real and tha sole owners of the land whjch they undertook to sell. It will be the business of, parties claiming the benefit of such sales to produce such evidence as the Attor-ney-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 you 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 as to engage that the grant shall be considered as baning the title of the Crown to such lands, an i as transferring to the grantee any right to the lands which at, or previously to the dale of the grant, may have been vested in the. Queen. It appears irom your despatches, that in some cases, these purchases were effected by supplying the Q,Ueen'j> native subjects, when in actual rebellion against their Sovereign with munitions of war, or wjth other articles required and employed by the sellers of the land for carrying on their traitorous designs. In whatever instances this fact shall be established, the presumption that the purchaser was aware of the illegal use about to be made of the goods he delivered must, under the circumstances of the case, be so strong, as not only to justify, but to re- uire a peremptory refusal to give effec,t to any such purchase, j by a Crown grant founded upon it. In fact the aiders and abettors in any such open warfare against their Sovereign, themselves incurred the guilt either of treason or of a high misdemeanor, and to all such persons it should be distinctly made known, that instead of receiving a reward for their crimes, they will be brought to trial and punishment, if the evidence against them shall rise, beyond a mere presumption, into a sufficient legal proof of their guilt. You will give immediate publicity to her Majesty's decision, and to the motives of it, as I have already explained them.. I anticipate that the result will be, that of the purchases made under Governor Fitzroy's proclamations veryfew indeed will be sustained. I have no difficulty in avowing that it will be gratifying to me to learn that such is the result, for the whole transaction is one which it is impossible to contemplate without a lively regret that any persons should be benefitted by it at the public expense, and an earnest desire to confine that > benefit strictly within the limits which the royal fait hi, as pledged by Lord Stanley's despatches prescribes. I am, &c, (Signed) ' ,Grey. Governor Grey, &c.