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MAELBOEOUGH. Claims recommended. Entitled to Entitled to Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. or Land Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. orLand £ Acres. £ Acres. Bales, Edward, 57th Regiment, private .. .. 60 Fowler, J., Blenheim Rifles, lieutenant .. 30 Cleary, J., 65th Regiment, private .... 60 Bythell, E., Marlborough Rangers, captain 30 Claims rejected. Humber, Robert, Militia, private. | Tanner, William, 58th Regiment, private.

NELSON. Claims recommended. Entitled to Entitled to Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. oi^Land £ Acres. £ Acres. Dunlop, D., 43rd Light Infantry, private .. .. 60 Mutton, D. 1., Forest Rangers, guide .. 30 King, Walter, 40th Regiment, private .. 30

WESTLAND. Claims recommended. Entitled to I Entitled to Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. or Land Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. or Land £ Acres. £ Acres. Green, W. H., H.M.S. " Eclipse," carpenter .. 60 Mitchell, S., H.M.S. " Harrier," boatswain's .. 60 Hitchen, W. M., Armed Constabulary, private .. 60 mate Jones, W., H. M.S. " Victoria," seaman .... 60 Morris, J., Taranaki Rifles, private .... 60 King, P., Taranaki Military Settlers, private .. 60 Ormond, L., 65th Regiment, private .... 60

CANTERBURY. Crown Lands Office, Christchurch, 13th August, 1890. In accordance with your circular No. 20, of the 11th December, 1889, I have, after giving notice by advertisement, held Courts of inquiry at Christchurch and Akaroa. Up to this date fifty-three claims in all have been presented, and I have taken evidence in respect to forty-six of them; but in a number of cases I have not been able to complete the evidence so as to enable me to give a decision. Some of the old soldiers cannot produce their discharges, which have been lost, and it will be necessary to obtain copies from the Horse Guards; and in some cases of claims under "The Volunteer Land Act, 1865," I shall have to get claimants' services verified by the Defence Office before I can certify that they are entitled to the remission of purchase-money provided by the lastmentioned Act. In considering the claims made by the various applicants who deem that they are entitled to land-grants under the 2nd section of "The Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act, 1889," I have had no difficulty in determining claims made under subsections (1), (3), (4), and (5); the majority of claims, however, are made under subsection (2), which provides that the Act shall apply to " all persons who retired from Her Majesty's naval or military service with a good character, for the purpose of settling in New Zealand, at any time before the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and who have so settled in New Zealand as aforesaid." In consequence of the warding of this subsection claims have been made by officers and men retired from Her Majesty's army or navy who settled in provinces in which no promises of land-grants were ever made: these persons made no claim on their arrival in the colony, but now consider that they are entitled under the provisions of this clause to something, though many of them have no idea what it should be. Ido not conceive this to be the intention of the Act, as it is silent as to what is to be granted, and to ascertain this it is necessary to refer to the Acts or regulations in force in the several provinces of Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, and Marlborough ; and in every case a certain period of residence in the particular district is required, and, though I understand this may be waived in cases where men tried to select land, but, owing to the difficulty of obtaining it or other causes referred to in the report of the Select Committee mentioned in the preamble to the Act, were unable to do so, yet I apprehend it is not intended that officers or men who came out to or immediately settled in a province where military and naval grants were not given, are entitled. If, however, such is intended, the Act will have to be amended, because there is nothing to show whether men who came to Canterbury, for example, should be granted what was promised to military and naval men who settled in Auckland or in Nelson, the promise in Auckland being a definite area of land, according to the settler's rank in the army or navy, and in Nelson a money-certificate, to be taken in payment for Crown lands, and differing in amount from what was promised in Auckland. I have therefore not made any recommendation in cases where claimants came direct to, or immediately after getting their discharge left the province in which they could have got a grant of land, and came and settled in, a province where no grants were given, as I have no means of deciding what such men are entitled to. In many cases claims are made by men who retired from the army years before the first Act promising land-grants was passed; in other cases, by men who did not come out for some years after getting their discharge from the army or navy. These, I deem, cannot be considered as having obtained their discharge " for the purpose of settling in New Zealand,"