Council Chamber, 14th January, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 787, 16 February 1853, Page 4

Council Chamber, 14th January, 1853.

Resolved — That it is now ascertained that Absentee owners of land in the' settlement of Nelson, under the resolutions of July, 1847, have a legal right to refer their claims to arbitration in the settlement, or in England. That it is desirable, however, Yor the speedier settlement of these complicated claims, not to cdmpel this class of claimants to have recourse to the mode of adjustment just alluded to. That, further, it appears more than probable that the scrip to be issued under the provisions of the New Zealand Land Claimants Ordinance will fall considerably below its nominal value, and it is intended that the scrip should be so framed that, under any system for reducing the upset price of land in New Zealand, not more, nor less than one acreof country land could be obtainable with it for one pound of scrip ; while the scrip issued to the residents at Nelson had this great advantage, that four acres as a maximum could be obtained for that amount. And this gave the scrip its principal value. That it follows, that the scrip to be issued to the Absentees being so inferior in value, no equitable adjustment of their claims cculd, in the opinion of the Council, be made, unless the Ordinance lie construed liberally, and according to its plain and obvious intention. That the Council consider that the obvion.* intention of the 27th clause of the Ordinance is, that the Nelson Absentee owners should, on the principle adopted at Wellington, and expressly referred to in the Ordinance, be entitled, as a general rule, to* 150 acres of rural land in compensation, in respect of every particular allotment {excluding ■ the town sections), the words "not exceeding" having reference merely to the cases where two or more claimants exist with respect to any one allotment — in which eases it was thought necessary expressly to provide that the amount given in the aggregate to all claimants in right of such particular allotment should not be more than 150 acres.