The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, MAY 6, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5337, 6 May 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, MAY 6, 1878.

It has been announced iipon authority which may be deemed official “ that Mr. Bees, acting on behalf of the Government, and with the consent of the AttorneyGeneral, has been instructed to pro-ceed-in the Supreme Court by way of scire facias to test the validity of the Crown grants issued to Mr. Whitaker and others for the blocks of land known as the Piako Swamp and the Pepepe coalfield.” Under these circumstances the ordinary and proper course for public journals—the case being regarded as sub judice —-is to abstain, from comments by which the public mind ma j be prejudiced, until by the action of the Supreme Court tho facts can be ascertained, and judg-. ment pronounced by an authority which men generally are agreed to confide in and respect. ■ It is greatly to be regretted that the Government itself should have sanctioned or directed a departure. from that salutary rule in the cases now in ; question. Sensational articles, which from their character can have had none other than the highest official origin, have been going the round of the party journals in this colony of late, especially, in .regard to one of the transactions which are threatened to be made, the subject of legal action, that known, as the sale of the Pepepe coalfield in Waikato. We should not have thought it necessary to notice these articles, which in truth have alargely person al diaracter, but, as the pule which properly governs public journals irt regard to questions submitted for decision to a Court of Jmtioe, pendente lite, has been; departed fran, we are impelled to place before the piblic the facts of the.particular case as they appear, on the records of the' colony. In the House of Bepresentatives on tho 20th June, -1876, Sir George Grey, ;hen leader of the Opposition, whilst denouncing Ministers in one of those' hysterical harangues in which he is prone to indulge, had the boldness, with respect to (he sale of the allotment at Pepepe, to make the following assertion, which, with the incidents of the scene that ensued, we quote from the ‘-‘ Hansard ” report- ' ; ' ; Sir Geokcie Grey : Tho laud was first offered for sale before survey, and on being surveyed it was found /b be short of 10,000 acres. They then divided tiro w i; - ole number of acres by tho £37*o, and made a new price, and at that price sole’ it to'the gentlemen to wh nm the Plalro-Waikato swamp was.offered. Major Atkinson ;It is untrue. • •• ’ • ‘ 3i r GVonoit Gii»v::-I appeal ia you, Mr. Speaker. The Comn'alsaibner looks at me and says “ It is un- ■■ ,r, as gr, sir, ihat some apology should be made. I shall not ptoceed’ until it is, Mr SrEAKtUt: Ido not think that such amnteruntion is beyond the limits allowed by. Parliamentary Sege ' Ofcorn.no it will recoil upon the honorable gentleman if in the course ol the discussion he is unable’ to substantiate his statement.- 1 ■ ■ ' 1 Sir Gbokcib Grey: Sir, I tell the honorable members of this House that X hold In my hands an official memorandum stating tho •circumstances of the case It is not in ■ mi/ handwriting, but was ’ made by a perfectly impartial person : and X have inspected the document, and-vouch for;tl|e tacts being correct. I will read to honorable gentlemen tire purport of tills memorandum. At the auction. sale, on l the.3rd December, 1872, this .block of land containing coal was offered as containing 10,000 acres at the upset price of £3750, or at the rate of 7s. Od. per acre. Ou tho 2nd October, 1873,, it was selected by''Messrs. 1 Whitaker and Russell and others' as containing 0850 acres, for the price of £3003. I went to the land o ffice myself accompanied hy the Commissioner, and asked how this was! The answer was that when first offered for sale the land was not surveyed, and tho plan of tho survey was only lodged in tho offlee.four or live days before tho land was put up to auction. That is'my distinct statement.' ■ ' ■' -

We have marked in italics the words in this'report of i Sir George Grey’s speech to which we invite attention as being the points, upon; which the matter in issqp turns, ....

The public notification of the intended sale of the Pepepo ,block was -made in the following terms in the Now Zealand Go: vernmonf Gazette on the Ist November, 1 1876 Public Notification.—Nhilor and in' pursuance oE the powers vested in me' as Commissioner appointed by his Excellency the Governor to carry out the regulations for the sale of lands taken for settlement under the Now Zealand Settlements Act, 1803, in the province of Auckland, J do hereby notify that the town and special rural’ lands specified in the schedule hereunder will be offered for sale by public auction, in accordance with the,said regulations, at the Waikato Lands Oltica, Auckland, at noon on Tuesday, the 3rd day of . December. ISlS.— Daniel , Pollen, Commlsf sioner. ~, . ' '

Here again we call attention to the , words which wo have noted ■. in, italics. 1 The land was “first offered for sale” on Tuesday, tho 3rd day of December, 1872. . According to Sir George Grey's own , showing tho land was, surveyed and the 1 plan lodged in the office four or, fiye days before that day. When, therefore. Sir ; George Grey assorted that the land was first offered for, sale before survey, it ap>-' pears to us, that Major Atkinson was jus-, ! tided in telling.him “that,it was untrue.” If parliamentary usage had permitted thp ; ; use of a shorter and more expressive term, he might very properly Have used it,"and ho might have ventured to add wliat ho could not then know, but what now api pears, that the leader,- of , the Opposition ; was deliberately stating that which ho knew to ’be' untrue for' the purpose hi damaging his political opponents. ; The , ingenious .dissociation between the terms “ offering for sale ’’ and “ putting up; to! auction,”,making two operations of, that ; which was only one, is oho of those : skilful frauds of language of which masters of tho art ara only capable,

Under these circumstances it appears that the Colonial Secretary, probably knowing the ex-Governor’s ways, suspecting that he would retreat upon Mr. Tolb in his embarrassment, sent the following instruction to Mr. Sinclair, the Chief Surveyor,-, who'was in charge of the confiscated Lands Office at Auckland : Wellington, Junu 23,157 C. Mr. Tolo, 1 understand)- is now in the habit of visiting your office and inspecting records for the purpose of obtaining information regarding the administration of the confiscated lands which is afterwards most unfairly used. Should Mr. Tolo again apply to you for this purpose, be good enough to invite him, in my name, to attend to his own business, of which the administration of confiscated lands forms no part, i mn ready to give most full and complete information upon all and every sub] ect to Mr. Tole or any other person whom it may concern ; but application must be made iu writing, and bo referred to me. ' Daniel Pollen. Andrew Sinclair, Esq., General Government Offices, AjJttjdand.

This move spoiled the adversary’s game. Wo think it will be generally conceded that having determined that all the correspondence should be | published, and all the facts made known, the Government were right, in the meantime, in preventing Mr. Tolb or Sir George Grey from getting farther information, verbally, from the Waikato Lauda Office, seeing how that which had already been so given had been garbled and misused.

On the 29th of June, 1876, it was moved by Sir George Grey, and ordered, that thepapers x-elating to this transaction should be produced ; they wore laid upon the table of the House and are printed in the appendix to the Journals for last year, and marked C—4 a. In another column we have reprinted that paper, omitting only the schedules of lands offered for sale, which, except as regards the one allotment, have no direct connection with this question. We invite attention to that paper. It shows first that an application was made early in the year 1872 to the late Sir Donald McLean, then Native Ministor, by the Waikato Steam Navigation and Coal Mining Company, to have 10,000 acres of land adjoining the Kupakupa coal mine put up for sale by auction. The purpose of the directors then was, we believe, to endeavor to form a company in England for the purpose of working the coalfield, and bringing English capital to aid their own long continued and valuable efforts to promote the progress of Waikato. The Commissioner of Confiscated Lands was instructed to offer the land for sale at the upset price of seven shillings and sixpence an acre, that being about one hundred per cent, above the price at which the Kupakupa mine itself, a much more valuable property, was sold under Sir George Grey’s own administration as Governor, and with his authority and approval. Directions were accordingly given for the survey. A notification appeared in the New Zealand Gazette on the Ist November, 1876, that allotment No. 166, Parish of Pepepe, 10,000 acres, containing coal, would be offered for sale by auction on the 3rd of December following. When the survey work was plotted the area was found to be9Bsoacres. Theplan was exhibited when the land was first offered for sale, on the 3rd December. We happen to know that the Chief Surveyor, 1 who conducted the sale, pointed out publicly, that lot 166, Pepepe, as shown upon the plan, contained 9850 acres only, ; and that its upset price at seven and sixpence an acre would.be £3693 15s. There was no bid tor the allotment, and in accordance with the land regulations it would remain open for sale, at the upset price of 7s 6d an acre, for a period of twelve months. The allotment was open for sale to any one who choose to pay for it. Mr.- Whitaker paid for it and took it, ten months after it was offered for sale. Wlxetlxex or not this transaction was “ fraudulent,” as Sir George Grey and Mr. George Jones allege, the judgment of the Supreme Court, if it be really intended to appeal to it, will determine, Wo have stated the facts, and given the evidence in support of them.