Superintendent's Office,
Auckland, July 24th, 1855.

Sir,—

I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, informing me that the General Government is no longer prepared to appoint the staff required for the service of the Waste Lands Board, or to defray, for the present, the expenses connected therewith.

By direction of His Excellency the Officer administering the Government, you suggest for my consideration whether it would not be preferable that I myself should make the necessary appointments and arrangements. I have the honour to state that I shall immediately make such appointments, and all the best arrangements I may be able to effect.

Having signified my adoption of the course recommended by the General Government, I am free to express my disappointment at the result of the endeavours which I have made to hasten the effective operation of the Land Regulations, and also to observe upon the reasons which you assign for the change in your previous determination.

On the 11th of June I had the honour of bringing before His Excellency several questions connected with the expenses of the Board, and of inviting your attention to the 62nd section of the Constitution Act, under which the Governor is not only authorised but required to pay out of the Revenue arising from “the disposal of the Waste Lands of the Crown, all the costs, charges, and expenses incident to the collection, management, and receipt thereof.”

You informed me, in reply, that “His Excellency was prepared to sanction the payment of the necessary expenses of the Board, by the General Government, out of the Land Fund.”

You also requested me to recommend proper persons for appointment to the service of the Waste Lands Board; and also expressed the willingness of the General Government to defray the expenses of contract surveys.

I complied with your request, by recommending to the General Government certain persons for appointment. In reply, you expressed His Excellency’s desire that I should also state what salaries I would recommend being attached to those appointments. I made the desired recommendation, including also the salaries of the Commissioners, which, under the forecited section of the Constitution Act, are chargeable upon the General Government, out of the Land Fund.

You now, however, decline carrying out the arrangement which had thus been made, and call my attention “to the new features which this question has now assumed, in consequence of the intended meeting of the Provincial Council at an early day.”

It thus appears, that when our arrangement concerning expenses was agreed to, you assumed my having no intention of calling the Council together. I am at a loss to perceive what grounds you could have had for arriving at any such conclusion, or in any way, divining the course that would be adopted by the Provincial Government, unless, indeed, the refusal of a dissolution had been already determined upon; in which case you must have perceived that I had no choice but to meet the Council at an early day.

You now inform me that the arrangement in question was only intended as a “temporary expedient;” but, although such may have been the intention, the terms in which the arrangement was made do not express it. The result of acting up to those terms would be an absolute and immediate relief of our Provincial Revenue from expenses which are imposed, by the Constitution Act, upon the General Revenue.

My request that the expenses of the Board should be defrayed out of the Land Fund was based upon an express provision in an Act of Parliament. But you refer me, not even to an Act, but to a Resolution of the Provincial Council, suggesting that I should proceed “upon the faith of the votes already passed.”

It has become necessary, Sir, that I should put this question of the Resolution finally at rest, by going into particulars connected with it.

The Provincial Council, immediately before separating on a long adjournment, instead of appropriating a sum that would cover the expenses of the Board (including the contract surveys) passed a resolution to this effect,—that certain sums, amounting to several thousand pounds, might be expended by the Provincial Government.

I am quite aware that a certain latitude of expenditure, for public convenience, is permitted to every Government, upon the tacit understanding that it be restricted to a trifling amount. I am always willing to assume responsibility, within proper limits, for the public service; but I should not have been justified in expending so large a sum without formal appropriation.

I have also been obliged to consider, that although such resolution might be binding upon the present Council, it would not be binding upon another Council. I might not impossibly have been placed in the position of incurring the grave censure of another Council, for having expended a large amount of money, without any legal sanction, on objects which they might disapprove.

But, Sir, a most important point remains, which appears to have altogether escaped your observation; namely, that although the Council resolved that certain sums of money might be expended, they declined providing the Provincial Government with the means of obtaining such money. The Provincial expenditure, as they had been made aware, was already nearly £7,000 in excess of the estimated income; the Council resolved that the expenditure should be increased by a large amount; nevertheless, they separated without passing the Debenture Bill, by which the increased expenditure was to have been provided for.

Upon reviewing my proceedings in regard to the Waste Land Regulations, it still appears to me that I could scarcely have acted otherwise with advantage to the Province.

No provision having been made by the General Government for the service of the Board, I considered it my duty, in anticipation of future adjustment, to propose to Council the sums necessary for bringing the Regulations into practical and immediate operation.

Being disappointed in obtaining an appropriation of such sums, I called His Excellency’s attention to the injury which was accruing to the Province, and also to the remedy provided by the Constitution Act.

I acquiesced in the arrangement which was then proposed by His Excellency, and have also acquiesced in the opposite arrangement, which has been subsequently proposed.

I have to thank His Excellency for the prospective justice to the Province which he contemplates, as intimated in the concluding paragraphs of your letter.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

Wm. Brown,
Superintendent.

The Honourable
The Colonial Secretary.