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therein mentioned, should, in certain cases, be deemed to have been in the grantee prior to the date of such grant, it was enacted that it should be lawful for the Commissioner who should hear and decide any such claim, at his discretion to report that for the purpose aforesaid, it would be expedient that such legal estate should be deemed to have been in such grantee, from and after a date to be named by such Claimant in that behalf. And whereas it was by the sixteenth section of the said Ordinance provided, that in every such case it should be the duty of the Colonial Secretary of the Province of New Munster, before issuing any such grant, to indorse thereon the date so reported •is aforesaid, and the legal estate in the land to be comprised in such grant, should be deemed to have been in the grantee thereof, from the date so to be endorsed as aforesaid. And whereas by virtue of a certain Act of Parliament made and passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth vears of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, entitled "An Act to grant a representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand, the office of Colonial Secretary for the Province of New Munster ceased to exist. And whereas great injury and inconvenience have been sustained by grantees in certain cases, by reason of there being no person duly authorised to make the endorsement by the said recited Ordinance required to be made by the Colonial Secretary for the Province ot New Munster. And whereas it is expedient that provisions should be made for remedying and preventing such injury and inconvenience, Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand as follows : ; 1. That clause 16 of the said recited Ordinance shall be > and the same is hereby repealed. I 2. Whenever soch endorsement as aforesaid shall not ii already have been duly made, it shall be the duty of the Colonial "Secretary of New Zealand in all cases in which the Commissioner or Commissioners who shall already have heard and decided, or who shall hereafter hear and decide any such claim as in the said recited ordinance mentioned, shall have already reported, or shall hereafter report that for the purposes in the said recited ordinance in that behalf mentioned, it would be expedient that the legal estate in the land to be comprised in any such grant as therein mentioned, should be deemed to have been in the grantee from and after a date to be named by the Claimant in that behalf, to endorse upon every such grant the date so reported or to be reported as aforesaid, and thereupon the legal estate in the land to be comprised in such grant, shall be deemed to have been in the grantee from the date so to be endorsed as aforesaid.

Repeal ef Clause 16 of New Zealand Company'•LandClaimants' Ordinance, Session XJ, No. 15. Duty mentioned in repealed Clause to be performed by Colonial Secretary of JS'ew Zealand.