24

carrying into execution all the most important
provisions of the New Zealand Company's Land
Claimants Ordinance.

2. The mode in which this power arises is so
   fully explained in a despatch from the Secretary
   of State to Sir George Grey, dated 21st July,
   1852, and which has been published among the
   papers ordered by the Legislative Council at
   its late session to be printed, a copy of which
   is herewith enclosed, that no remarks on this
   point are necessary.

3. In exercise, therefore, of the power so
   given, the Governor-in-Chief has directed me
   to inform you that Government has decided
   that the provisions of the Ordinance relating to
   the issue of scrip shall be carried out without
   further delay.

4. The enclosed extract from the proceedings
   of the Executive Council on January 18, 1853,
   explains the character of the scrip it is intended
   to issue.

5. You will, therefore, be good enough to
   proceed with the investigation, and report upon
   the claims of land-owners in Nelson who may
   be desirous of receiving Government Scrip in
   satisfaction of their claims to land.

6. Among these, probably the largest number
   are those of the absentees to lands to be given
   in compensation.

7. You will see, from the 14th clause of the
   despatch alluded to, that it will be your duty to
   propose to this class of claimants, as an alterna-
   tive, either the compensation given by the Or-
   dinance, or the arbitration given by the resolu-
   tions of July, 1847, which, as shewn by the pub-
   lished opinion of the Law Advisers of the
   Crown alluded to, and enclosed in the same
   despatch, form one of those contracts of the
   New Zealand Company which have devolved
   on Her Majesty's Government.

8. I have now to call your attention to the
   enclosed copy of a Minute of the Executive
   Council, dated 14th January, 1853, in relation
   to these claims. It expresses the view of Go-
   vernment with respect to the true meaning and
   intention of the clause of the Ordinance relating
   to these claims, and which appears to be in ac-
   cordance with the equity of the case.

9. I am, therefore, to instruct you, in award-
   ing the compensation to be given to absentees,
   to be guided in the interpretation of the Ordi-
   nance by the general principle laid down in the
   minute last alluded to.

I have the honor, &c.,
(Signed) ALFRED DOMETT,
Civil Secretary.

To
John Poynter, Esq.,
&c., &c., &c.,
And
The Honorable
Constantine Augustus Dillon,
&c., &c., &c.

DESPATCH FROM SIR JOHN PAKINGTON TO
GOVERNOR SIR GEORGE GREY.

Copy—No. 34.

Downing Street, 21st July, 1852.

SIR,—I have to acknowledge your despatch,
No. 133, dated September 25th, 1851, trans-
mitting a copy of the New Zealand Company's
Land Claimants Ordinance, and your despatch,
No. 6, of the 6th January, 1852, in which you
inform me that you had ceased to carry out the
provisions of that Ordinance on finding that
they conflicted with those of the Imperial Act
14th and 15th Victoria, c. 86, for "regulating
the affairs of certain settlements established by
the New Zealand Company."

2. I fully appreciate both the usefulness of
   the objects which the Legislature proposed to
   effect by this Ordinance, and also the difficul-
   ties under which it was considered and passed.
   It is to be regretted that you did not receive
   any instructions of the views of Her Majesty's
   late Government as to these questions for so
   long a period as that stated in your despatch of
   the 6th January. But subsequent correspondence
   will have shown you, that this delay was in no
   respect occasioned by neglect: it originated in
   the great complication and difficulty of the ques-
   tions raised by the sudden surrender of the
   Charter of the New Zealand Company, and the
   necessity of repeated references to the Law
   Advisers of the Crown in order to ascertain the
   rights of the various parties affected by it, as
   well as of a long correspondence with the Com-
   pany itself. It was felt that imperfect instruc-
   tions would only mislead you.

3. And I think it is farther to be regretted
   that you did not wait until such instructions
   arrived, or, that if you felt compelled to under-
   take Legislative measures, you did not do so
   with more recourse to legal advice than appears
   to have been the case. For the embarrassment
   occasioned by the Ordinance, and which has
   caused Her Majesty's Government to be thus
   late in acknowledging and deciding on it, has
   been mainly owing to the circumstance that it
   conflicts with the provisions of the Act 10 and
   11 Victoria, c. 112, under which contracts of
   the New Zealand Company and certain liabi-
   lities of that Company are recognized as de-
   volving on the Crown, which contracts and
   liabilities could not therefore be affected by any
   provincial legislation. However much they
   might feel disposed to give effect to your Or-
   dinance, it was impossible to give Her Majesty's
   confirmation where, being in conflict with an
   Act of Parliament, it must be a nullity.

4. But the power which Her Majesty's Go-
   vernment now possesses, under the late Con-
   stitutional Act, together with those given by
   14th and 15th Victoria, c. 86, seems, as will
   be presently explained, sufficient, if not to en-
   able Her Majesty formally to confirm the Or-