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for the Commissioner\'s certificate, after application had been made to buy it at 10s., and which the runholder is not bound by the Land Regulations to do within any given time, as Mr. Tancred\'s reading of the clause would seem to imply, and which if confirmed will certainly very much reduce our future prospects of Land Revenue in this Province. By ruling that the runholder who wishes for protection should make the application himself beforehand, I submit the clauses in question may be read without confusion; whilst by adhering to the other reading, all must be confusion, without adopting that part of Mr. Tancred\'s opinion marked A (enclosure No. 2), and which not being contained in the Land Regulations themselves, I believe cannot be legally adopted, and might be successfully disputed in the Supreme Court. Then, again, if the runholder applies beforehand for a certificate that the hilly part of his run is only worth 5s. per acre, and obtains it, all would be clear, and no person would have a right to buy him out unless by auction in the usual way. Whereas, if he does not adopt this course it is manifestly impossible for the Commissioner to give him the required certificate after 10s. per acre has been offered for it, and there would be no fair reason for putting obstructions in the way of general purchasers, as, under the additional Land Regulations adopted by the Provincial Council of Wellington, he would not be required to remove his stock until after 3 months\' notice of the land having been given purchased by another party was given in the "Government Gazette."

Hoping that this important subject will receive due consideration at your earliest convenience.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
(Sgd.) T. H. FITZGERALD.

Colonial Secretary\'s Office,
Auckland, July 12, 1859.

SIR,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your honor\'s letter of the 6th ultimo, requesting that you might be furnished with the opinion of the Honorable the Attorney General as to the true interpretation of the 8th and 14th Clauses of Sir George Grey\'s Land Regulations of 1853.

The question raised in your letter is of considerable difficulty, but the Attorney General is of opinion, after a careful consideration, that Section 14 of those Regulations is the only one of those two applicable to land held as a run.

On the application of a purchaser to purchase land it is no doubt competent for the Commissioner to certify that from its hilly and broken character, or from some other cause, "it is unavailable for agricultural purposes," and in such case it must be put up to auction, but no Commissioner, it is thought, could possibly be justified in giving a certificate—the giving of it being discretionary with him—which would have the effect of causing land to be put up at 5s. an acre, when an offer had already been made to purchase it at 10s. an acre.

The Commissioner of Crown Lands at Hawke\'s Bay should at once let it be fully understood that the fact of an offer to purchase any land at 10s. an acre will preclude him from giving a certificate under Section 14, and that no application will be acceded to by him for that purpose.

This course would have the effect of giving the land to the first applicant at 10s. an acre, and be in accordance with the spirit of the Regulations.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
(Sgd.) HENRY JOHN TANCRED,
for the Colonial Secretary.

Crown Land Office,
Napier, August 2, 1859.

IT IS HEREBY NOTIFIED for general information that in all cases in future where application is made to purchase hilly land forming a part of a sufficiently stocked run at ten shillings (10s.) per acre, and where such land so applied for has not been previously certified by the Commissioner of Crown Lands at the instance of the runholder, as not being worth ten shillings per acre, in accordance with the 14th clause of the Land Regulations of 1853,—such application to purchase at the rate of 10s. per acre will be at once accepted and the land applied for registered in the usual way as having been sold to the party making the application.

H. S. TIFFEN,
Commissioner of Crown Lands.