Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, 29th March, 1851.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR NOR-IN-CHIEF has been pleased to appoint

to support

Mr. Philip Gregor Vonxa,
to the united offices of Inspector of Sheep under the “Scab Ordinance,” and Inspector of Brands and Slaughterhouses, under the “Slaughter-house Ordinance” for the Town and District of Wellington, vice Mr. John Trench Gill. The appointment to bear date from the 1st April next.

By His Excellency’s command,

Alfred Domett,
Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, 29th March, 1851.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR NOR-IN-CHIEF directs the publication, for general information, of the following abstract of an Ordinance for determining claims to land, to be submitted to the General Legislative Council at its ensuing Session:

By His Excellency’s command,

Alfred Domett,
Colonial Secretary.

A BILL to explain the legal Government to determine conflicting claims to conveyances arising from land orders, or other contracts, with the New Zealand Company; to issue grants of land in fulfilment of contracts with the New Zealand Company; to issue scrip in exchange for land; to exchange sections of scrip with the owners thereof; to determine disputes relating to boundaries of land, and to perform and conclude all contracts, made between the New Zealand Company and their purchasers respecting land in these Islands.

1. Enacts that, in cases of doubt or disputed title, a grant by the Governor of the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, for the estate or interest, to which any purchaser, whether original or derivative, from the New Zealand Company may, in the opinion of a Commissioner appointed for the purpose, be entitled at the time of the issue of the grant, shall be deemed both at law and in equity sufficient conveyance by the Crown on behalf of the New Zealand Company of the contract to convey the said lands, &c.

2. All grants shall be in the form of the schedule hereto annexed, and may be issued for a section or for a part, or parts thereof, without reference to the original survey.

3. The Colonial Secretary may, at the request of a grantee or his agent, endorse on the grant the date at which the legal estate vested in the grantee, which legal estate shall be deemed and taken to have been in the grantee from the date so endorsed thereon.

4. In all cases where the New Zealand Company may have contracted to deliver a particular section of land, and it is not in the power of the Government to deliver such section, an appraisement of its value may be made jointly by the person entitled to the same and the Government, and the Governor may issue scrip to the amount of the value so ascertained, which scrip shall be received as cash in the purchase of all lands offered for sale by the Government in the Province of New Munster. Provided that the amount of scrip shall in no case be less than the amount originally paid to the New Zealand Company for the land.

5. Any person having acquired a section of land from the New Zealand Company, and wishing to resign it before the issue of a Grant, under the provisions of this bill may, on giving notice within eighteen months from the passing of this Bill, and receive an amount of scrip equal in amount to the sum paid to the New Zealand Company, which scrip shall be available as cash in the purchase of any Government land within the Province.

6. In all cases where the New Zealand Company has issued scrip entitling the holder to so many sorts of land, or to land of the value of so many pounds, the holder thereof will be required to select his land within six months from the passing of this bill, and the Governor may at any time issue scrip of the kind before mentioned, in exchange for the scrip of the New Zealand Company, at the rate of one pound sterling for every acre of land the holder may be entitled to select, or for one pound sterling for every pound payable in land, to which the holder of such scrip may be entitled.

7. In all cases where the boundaries of lands, the title to which was acquired from or through the New Zealand Company, are disputed, the Governor may appoint a Commissioner to determine the boundaries in dispute, and may issue a Grant according to the boundaries of the land determined by such Commissioner.

8. From and after the date of the passing of the Bill, the 13th chapter of the Royal Instructions, relating to the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown, bearing date the 23rd day of December, 1846, shall be revived and be in force in all the settlements containing lands affected by contracts between the New Zealand Company and their purchasers; in so far as such Instructions may not be repugnant to this Bill.