15

consider itself bound for years to come
by such application made long before the
land became Crown lands, because the
Commissioner of Crown Lands for the
Province of Wellington thought fit to
receive them and take deposits for it?

(Signed) T. H. FITZGERALD.
Napier,
June 3, 1859.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, June 22, 1859.
SIR,—I have to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your Honor's letter of the 3rd
inst., submitting certain questions on
the subject of applications and deposits
for Occupation Licenses to depasture
stock over lands not yet acquired from
the natives, and I have to return to you
the following replies :—

1.—There is no law, rule, or regula-
tion authorizing the Commissioner of
Crown Lands to receive applications
with deposits, for depasturing licenses
over Native Lands, or Lands not ac-
tually belonging to the Crown.

2.—Applicants for depasturing licen-
ses over Native Lands do not acquire a
right of priority over other applicants
for the same lands after they have be-
come Crown Lands.

3.—As there was no authority to re-
ceive the applications in question, it
cannot be regarded as unjust to apply
other rules more suitable to the present
requirements of the Province when the
Lands become Crown Lands.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obdt. Servant,
(Signed) HENRY JOHN TANCRED,
For the Colonial Secretary.

His Honor the Superin-
tendent, Napier.

Superintendent's Office,
Napier, June 6, 1859.
SIR,—I have the honor to address
you on a subject of great importance to
this Province, in the hope that you will
be good enough to obtain from the At-
torney General his opinion as to the
true interpretation of 8th and 14th
clauses of Sir G. Grey's Land Regula-
tions of 1853, a necessity for which has
arisen out of a correspondence between
the Commissioner of Crown Lands here
and the Secretary of Crown Lands—
the latter having put, in a case (see en-
closure No. 1) laid before him, a differ-
ent construction on the 14th Clause to
that hitherto given by the Chief Land
Commissioner at Wellington and whose
directions had been acted on by his de-
puty here up to the time of separation.

From enclosure No. 1 you will ob-
serve that an application was made by
a Mr. Guesdon to purchase 8000 acres
of land here, which, had the Commission-
er adhered to Mr. Fox's reading of the
14th clause, would have been at once
accepted, inasmuch as the runholder
had not thought fit to apply previously
for the certificate of its being 5s. land;
and it would have been impossible for
the Commissioner to certify that it was
not worth 10s. if it had actually been
offered.

I enclose a copy of the reply given
to Mr. Commissioner Tiffen by the
Secretary of Crown Lands and a copy
of Mr. Fox's replies to queries put to
him by a Select Committee of the Pro-
vincial Council of Wellington last Ses-
sion, on the reading (enclosure No. 3)
of the clauses in question.

The great point to be decided is whe-
ther under the 14th clause, the Land
Commissioner here is empowered to re-
fuse in future all applications to sell
land at 10s. per acre, held within the
district as sheep runs, and not previous-
ly certified by him as not worth 10s.
per acre, until the runholder thinks pro-
per to apply for a 5s. certificate.

I would venture to explain here my
own opinion of the meaning of the much
disputed 8th and 14th Clauses, which I
heard fully discussed when I was at the
head of the Survey Department at Wel-
lington at the time of their promulga-
tion.

The 8th Clause, I believe, was in-
tended to apply only to such 5s. land
held by the Government that was not
occupied as runs; whilst the 14th clause
relates solely to hilly land held as runs
that the runholder had obtained the
Commissioner's certificate to be not
worth more than 5s.; which I believe
under that clause he could obtain with-
out any necessity of paying a deposit
or wishing to buy, but solely as a pro-
tection to him to prevent his being
bought out without notice by persons
who, not caring for it as agricultural
land, would nevertheless be glad to give
10s. per acre, because they would be
then in a position to bid for the sheep
or cattle of the runholder at a nominal
price. But I think it never was in-
tended to shut up all lands held as runs,
until the runholder was pleased to ask