G—No. 5

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From these figures however, must be deducted the land sold by the Company to private purchasers. Thus from the 300,000 selected at Wellington, must be deducted the 127,959 acres sold, leaving a balance of 173,041 acres to that Province. In Nelson the land selected and the land sold by the Company were almost exactly equal. At New Plymouth, nearly one half of th c land selected was sold, or upwards of 14,000 acres. While at Otago of the 400,000 acres selected, only 6,567 acres were sold, leaving a balance to the credit of that Province of 393,433 acres. We can therefore put our finger only on about one half of the New Zealand Company's estate, let us say in round numbers, on about 600,000 acres. The remainder constituting a balance of 472,000, was in the nature of unexercised land scrip running over the whole of the Province of New Munster. Your Memorialists now approach the consideration of the most important of the three questions they proposed to themselves for solution, namely, " Who got this estate ? " It has been decided by the House of Representatives, and, we believe with perfect justice, that Auckland did not get any, and Auckland has in consequence been relieved both prospectively, and retrospectively from all contribution to the New Zealand Company's debt. The Province of Auckland may therefore be put out of the question. Of the land actually selected by the Company, we have seen that New Plymouth got about 15,000 acres ; Wellington about 170,000 acres ; and Otago 393,000 acres. But as regards the unexercised right of selection, or the land scrip as it may be called, how is it to be decided in what proportions it is to be allotted between each of the three Provinces ? Now your Memorialists do not seek to pretend that this is a point which it is possible to settle with anything like certainty or precision. A fair apportionmerit of an estate in posse thus surrendered must rest after all on surmise founded upon considerations of the probable conduct of men in given circumstances. But with this concession made to its fullest extent, it is still evident that something like a general rule may be recognised and acted on. Thus if a right of selection has been surrendered, running over the whole of this Island, it is a fair presumption that those parts of it which possess the greatest natural advantages, whether of soil or harbour, have been most benefitted by the extinction of the right, because they are the portions which in all human probability would have been selected. If an individual possessed a right of selecting land in a town, and in any part of that town, it is all but a certainty that he would select his land where commerce was most active and population densest, and if, with a view to purchasing from that individual his right, it was necessary to lay an assessment upon the town, it would clearly be fair and just that those wards or parishes which offered the greatest attraction to the holder of the right, should pay more than those other wards in which the land was less valuable. By parity of reasoning, it may fairly be held that Canterbury and Otago benefitted much more by the extinction of the Company's right than Nelson did. Because in Nelson the choice localities had already been disposed of, leaving little but intervening tracts of broken and comparatively worthless land ; whereas the Provinces of Can terbury and Otago, still offered to the Company's choice, harbours destined to become centres of trade, and extensive and valuable tracts of land admirably adapted for settlement, and certain before many years, to be eagerly purchased. But while your Memorialists consider themselves entitled to use the argument just stated as one perfectly fair and hardly capable of being successfully controverted, they are under no necessity of relying upon this or any other partially hypothetical view of the case to prove the unfairness of the division of the New Zealand Company's debt. They will assume that the acres to which the Company was entitled were equally divided among the three Provinces of Otago, Canterbury, and Nelson ; and upon this supposition they will proceed to work out the results. The original Company's estate, as has been explained, was 1,072,000 acres. Of this, as already shewn, Wellington has received 173,041 acres actually selected, and New Plymouth upwards of 15,000 acres. These two amounts must clearly be subtracted before arriving at the balance to be carried to the credit of the Middle Island ; and this being done, it will be found that there remains to be divided 884,000 acres ; a result arrived at upon the supposition that no portion of Company's scrip would have been selected within the Province of Wellington or New Plymouth. Of the 884,000 acres thus accruing to the Middle Island, Otago received 393,400 actually selected, Canterbury none, and Nelson none. There remain accordingly of unselected land, equally divisible between the three Provinces aforesaid 490,000 acres, which in three equal portions gives to each 163,533 acres. Upon this basis of division it appears that Otago gets of selected land 393,4" iO, and of unselected 163,533, or altogether 556,933 acres ; Canterbury 163,533 acres of unselected land; and Nelson 163,533 acres. And this is the answer to the question, Who got the estate ? Now, if this were the ultimate result, the only conclusion could be, that Canterbury and Nelson had, equally with reference to Otago, made a very bad bargain in the matter of the New Zealand Company's debt. But this is not yet the worst of the case as regards our province. For, from the 163,500 acres, which upon the supposition least favourable to Nelson we can be shewn to have received, must be deducted the value of £90,706 of scrip, which, by a return laid upon the table of this Council, it appears has been issued. With this scrip much of the best land in our province has been selected; and, assuming £1 of scrip to represent one acre of land, the number of acres coming to us after making the required deductions would be 72,827. Your memorialists, with the most perfect conviction of the truth and justice of their case, invite an inquiry into the accuracy of their figures and the results arrived at. As the representatives of the province in the Local Legislature, they desire to represent to your Honourable House the very serious injury, they had almost said the complete paralysis of their material interests, arising out of their being compelled to pay an enormous sum for such an inadequate consideration. It has been already their