THE WANGAPEKA LAND PURCHASERS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 786, 9 March 1871, Page 2

THE WANGAPEKA LAND PURCHASERS.

Mr. Justice Richmond, in a decision recently given, has ruled that the purchasers of land at Wangapeka in the province of Nelson, cannot enforca their claims against the Commissioner. The action was by Cooksey, a pi* chaser, for a writ of mandamus to com. pel the Commissioner to prepare and deliver to the plaintiff a Crown grant of a section of land a£ Wangapeka, the same being alleged to have been purchased as rural land, at £2 "per acre. His Honor in giving judgment, said : In support of the present application, it is argued that all waste land of the Crown within the province which has not been classified as town, suburban, or mineral land, is, necessarily, rural land; no positive act of classification being requisite to give it that character. Rural land, according to this view is, simply, unclassified laud ; the 24th section being considered to define as such all land comprised in any of the other three classes. In my opinion this is not the true interpretation of the statute. The language of section 24 is, to say the least of it, as capable of the sense now put upon it on behalf of the Commissioner, as of that which the applicant would affix to it. That being so, of the two constructions 1 am bound to prefer the one which more effectually precludes surprise upon the guardians of the public interest, and secures against the process which is termed " picking out the eyes of the country." It never can have been intended, that throughout unexplored country, town sites, coal mines, and quarto reefs, should be bought up at 40s pet acre. The land made saleable at the price must, as I understand the Act; be land the quality of which has been examined by the Board, and respecting which the Board has actually determined, and, in effect, publicly an. nounced, that it is likely to be valuable only for rural, that is to say, for agricultural or pastoral purposes. The case might be different if over the whole province, or within some definite district comprising the land ii question, the Board had set apart town, or suburban, and mineral land, The residuary land might then, perhaps, be regarded as positively classed under the head " rural." Actually, it does not appear that the Board has, with respect to the district comprising the land in question, in any wise exercised its prower of classification. Upon this ground, then, I am of opinion, that the rule must be disc barged. There is one other substantial objection to the rule, viz., that the land iu question is within the limits of the Nelson South-West Goldfields, at proclaimed on the Bth June, 1868, Supposing this question to be reduci ble, by the mutual concessions made respecting matters of fact, to a qu» tion of law, it is one which I feel to be of great difficulty ; on which the opposing arguments are probably as yet unexhausted. Upon the question of costs, afta hearing the arguments, his Honor sail that he should give no costs. The purchaser's application for the land was in accordance with what had been the usual practice of the office, although that practice was now decide! to have been incorrect. The Com missioner could not complain that the applicant insisted upon his purchase, and refused to be satisfied with any thing short of a decision of the S& preme Court. It was said the costi might have to be paid by the Cot missioner out of his private fundi His Honor noped not, as it was evident that the Commissioner, and also til Board, had acted in perfect good faitk

Witty Pat.—An Irishman was ridinf with a rogue, who, as they trotted on bj a gibbet, asked his companion wereh would be if that gallows had its cfol and received the capital reply, " I'd !* riding by myself, " A Liberal Salary.-One of tl Methodist ministers at the Boston cot veution stated that his salary forth first year's preaching consisted of a w* hat and a bushel of apples. Since tb» he has been more fortunate, haviij received about twenty-five doll* l annually. A. T. Kettle is the only singer d never has a cold.