(99)
Members of Council, who may be supposed to re-
present the sentiments of the community, are hos-
tile to it, it behoves us to act with caution. If
then those amendments are adopted, and especially
the one which is intended to effect a change in
the preamble, on which the Bill rests, I shall at
once withdraw the measure, and bring in another,
founded on the Bill of Sir George Gipps. The Bill
now before the Council has, however, been framed
after much labour and deliberation, with an anx-
ious desire to promote the interests of the Colo-
nists, and if it cannot be carried, I do not say
with the concurrent feeling, but with a considerable
proportion of the community in its favor, then
there appears no alternative, but that we must
fall back upon the Act of New Souh Wales.
Even with the assent of the Colonists to a measure
proposed by Government, I should not feel satis-
fied, unless strongly convinced that it was for
their own interests. The desire of Government is,
to promote the welfare of the Colonists; and, im-
pressed with a belief that the measure now under
consideration is calculated to effect that object;
we have steadily pursued its course up to the stage
at which it has now arrived. Contrary to my
expectations, however, a contrary feeling has been
exhibited out of doors: public meetings have been
held, strong speeches made, and hostile resolutions
adopted, by parties whom I could have little sup-
posed would have countenanced such proceedings.
Having the interests of the Colony at heart, I feel
it would be injudicious and impolitic for the
Government to press forward a Bill, to which the
Colonists use so much averse, for they ought to
be the best judges of their own interests. I will
only repeat that the amendments of non-official
Members are so diametrically opposed to the
principle of the measure, that it would be quite
useless to further, should Mr. Porter's amend-
ment to the preamble be carried. It is not the
wish of Government to force the measure on the
Colonists.

The Colonial Secretary then moved the order
of the day, for the consideration of the Land
Claims' Bill in Committee.

The Governor said, before the Bill goes into
Committee, it may be important for me to inform
honorable Members that the effect of one of
the Attorney General's amendments will be, to
extend the period for which leases are to be
granted to sixty years, and this concession, I
hope, will have the effect, at least in some degree,
of allaying dissatisfaction and disarming oppo-
sition.

The Bill then went into Committee, and the
Clerk of Council having read the preamble,—

Mr. Porter said there is, no doubt, a disposition
in the mind of the Governor, and of the Members
of Government, to alter those parts of this im-
portant Bill, of which the public generally disap-
prove. Of this feeling the observation just made
by His Excellency affords additional proof; but I
am sorry the intimation regarding leases, just
given, is not satisfactory to myself, nor will
it be to those numerous and inftential parties,
many of them land-claimants, whose interests
I represent. I feel it, therefore, notwith-
standing what has fallen from your Excellency,

an imperative duty to press the amendment to the
preamble, of which I gave notice on a pre-
vious day, to a division. In performing this duty,
I am sorry to have to remark that something like a
threat has been held out, that, unless the conces-
sion proposed be acceded to, Government has re-
solved to fall back upon the Bill of Sir George
Gipps; for that measure has retarded the pros-
perity, and blighted the prospects of the Colonists.
By pursuing the course of Sir George Gipps, un-
less your Excellency is prepared to take the res-
ponsibility upon yourself, this part of the Colony
will be entirely ruined. The Government has al-
ready incurred a heavy responsibility, by not
having passed a Bill to settle and set at rest the
Land Claims immediately, and that responsibility
will certainly be increased by every fresh delay.
My reasons for pressing my amendment are, first,
that it is desirable to give to each claimant at least
a portion of the land of which he was the purcha-
ser, or, by any arrangement with the purchaser,
the actual occupier. Secondly, that it is unjust
to take from an individual land which, it is admit-
ted, he had equitably purchased, and force him to
take lands elsewhere, in substitution of his own.
And, thirdly, I object to the measure, because it
must be partial in its operation; because in defin-
ing the districts from which parties are compelled
to make choice, much discrepancy must arise as to
the actual value of allotments. Any line the
Government might draw must naturally lead to
exclude some, whilst it gives to others, perhaps less
entitled to the benefit. One person, in drawing the
line, would say, "go further, and take me in
here';" by which means another party might be
left out, to the advantage of his next neighbour.
The Bill is, further, directly at variance with the
instructions from the Home Government, which
expressly provides that parties shall not be dis-
turbed in their possessions, much less compelled
to exchange, eventually, their lands now in culti-
vation, for others, in localities less adapted to
their particular views or avocations. I further
object that one portion of the preamble of the bill
is at variance with another, inasmuch as that,
having stated the rule for the settlement of pro-
perty claimed by the New Zealand Company, and
to which there are special exceptions, it applies
the same rule to all other claimants, without refer-
ence to those concessions made in favour of the
Company by her Majesty's Government. If it is
left to the Government to decide where each
claimant shall select his land from districts thrown
open for selection, it will be placing an undue
power in their hands, and will, in the execution of
the plan, operate as an annoyance to themselves,
because it will create dissatisfaction in the minds of
many of the claimants. In conclusion, my wish
is to give the claimants the lands they are fairly
entitled to; and I therefore move, according to
notice, that the preamble be amended as fol-
lows:

"In preamble, in line 28, strike out the words,
"the granting to each of the," and insert, " it is
desirable to grant to persons," and in line 30,
strike out the words after "Ordinances," down
to "and whereas," in line 34, and insert " such