50

ject, laid down in the Volume of Colonial Regulations, chapter 3, section 1. You will, therefore, fill up all vacancies, but except in offices of the lowest of the three classes into which appointments are divided, you will only do so provisionally and subject to the confirmation of the Secretary of State. Both in the principles on which you will select the candidates to be recommended, and also in the course of reporting immediately all appointments, you will strictly follow the Rules laid down in the above cited chapter of the Colonial Regulations, which is so full and clear in its directions, and so explanatory of the grounds on which those directions rest, that I feel it unnecessary to add anything more upon the subject in this Despatch.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

(Signed) GREY.

Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B.
&c., &c., &c.

(COPY OF TREASURY MINUTE OF JUNE 25, 1850.)

My Lords refer to the arrangements respecting Customs Establishments in the American and West Indian Colonies, directed by their Minutes of 24th December, 1847, 29th July, 1849, and 29th January last, and to the provision made in those Colonies by substitution, in lieu of the establishment which had previously been employed under the management of the Board of Customs, in the collection of both Imperial and Colonial Duties, of such Officers only as are required for ensuring due observance of the Imperial laws relating to the Navigation and Trade, irrespective of any arrangements or appointments having reference to the collection of Colonial Duties, or to enforcement of local laws and regulations. And my Lords being of opinion that it is advisable that analogous arrangements should be adopted as regards the settlements in Australia and New Zealand, and likewise as regards other Colonies where the collection of Customs Duties is made under authority of local legislative enactments or special Orders of Her Majesty in Council, to raise revenues for the service of the Colonial Government or for other local objects, they direct that a letter be written to the Commissioners of Customs, advertizing to the views above stated, and desiring the Commissioners will report to my Lords what portion of the business transacted by the present establishments at the stations hereafter specified it will be necessary to make provision for, with a view to the above mentioned Imperial objects, and what Officers it will be necessary to retain for that purpose, in cases where it may not be expedient to employ Officers belonging to the Colony, viz:

In the several Australian Colonies,

New Zealand,

Ceylon,

Mauritius,

Cape of Good Hope,

Natal,

St. Helena,

Sierra Leone,

The Gambia,

Also desire the Commissioners will report the names of the Officers constituting the actual establishments under their direction in the Colonies in question, with their several periods of service and rates of salary, shewing what claim these Officers, if at present reduced, might have to retired or redundant allowance from the funds of this country. Also desire the Commissioners will report whether the adoption of the arrangements above adverted to will render it necessary or expedient that any alteration should be made in the Orders in Council, whereby trade is at present regulated and duties are levied at the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, or Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and St. Helena.

(No. 50.)

Downing Street,

13th August, 1850.

Sir,

I have not failed to bestow my most careful consideration on your Despatches of the numbers and dates specified in the margin,* explaining the grounds on which you had been induced to propose to the Legislature an Ordinance “for quieting Titles to Land in the Province of New Ulster,” and sending a copy of that Ordinance itself, to be submitted to her Majesty.

2. The effect of this important measure is to confirm to the numerous Land Claimants under direct purchases from the Natives, the large tracts of land to which they assert a right, or in cases where this may be impossible from the previous rights of the Natives themselves, to confer upon the European claimants an equivalent out of the general landed territory of the Crown. It is needless for me to recapitulate on this occasion the slight grounds, in equity, of many of the claims in question, or the injurious tendency to the public interest of finally placing in the possession of individuals such extensive tracts of land for which they have mostly given but a trifling consideration. These views have often been stated before. The best proof of the extent to which you have been alive to them, has been evinced by the resistance which, in spite of much obloquy and unjustifiable opposition,

*101. 24th July, 1849.

131. 3rd October, 1849.

132. 28th November, 1849.