COUNCIL PAPER.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1082, 20 June 1873, Page 3

COUNCIL PAPER.

waite's petition. The following is the report of the Petition Committee of the Nelson Provincial Council on the memorial of inhabitants of Westport, Charleston, and other places, praying for compensation to Mr Eeuben Waite : By reference to the records of previous sessions of the Council, and by the evidence of the Crown Lands Commissioner, the Committee learn that, in the sesion of 1868, Mr Eeuben Waite was voted the sum of £IOO as compensation for losses sustained through delay in granting him the pre-emptive right to purchase eighty acres ae a homestead, and through other causes affecting land held by him under pasturage license. By further vote of the Council it was agreed that Mr Waite should be allowed to purchase eighty acres at a cost not exceeding ten shillings per acre. There is no evidence, however, of Mr Waite having sought to avail himself of the privilege to purchase on these terms during the continuance of his pasturage license, or until four years after the date of the vote of the Council. On the contrary, he several times petitioned the Council for compensation on the grounds that the Waste Lands Board declined to cancel his license, and on other grounds which had previously been considered and entertained by the Council. It was only in 1872, and upwards of a year after the forfeiture of his license that he made application for the deeds for his homestead without tendering tho purchase price, and tho Committee are led to understand that for these reasons the application was not complied with. The committee, therefore, cannot recommend that compensation should be allowed to Mr Waito for losses which, if sustained, were obviously incurred by his own action. The Committe, therefore submit for adoption by the Council the following recommendation : "That Mr Eeuben Waite's pasturage license having expired in June, 1871, and he, having failed to take advantage of the votu of this Council in 18GS, enabling him to purchase his homestead during the currency of that. license, any claim by him for compensation cannot now be entertained."