(92)

on every purchase, and your decision not to issue,
except under very special circumstances, any
grant to any such purchaser until you shall have
received the further instructions of Her Majesty's
Government."

"These measures, however judicious in them-
selves, are, as you have pointed out, quite inade-
quate to encounter an evil of such magnitude.
The effectual remedy must be of a different
character, and must be taken under the imme-
diate authority of Her Majesty's Government.

On referring to the official correspondence, I
find that Governor Fitzroy's first Proclamation,
waiving the Crown's right of pre-emption, was
dated on the 26th March, 1844. It formed one
of a great body of enclosures in his despatch of
15th April in the same year. The effect of that
Proclamation was to require the payment to the
Crown of Ten Shillings in respect of every nine
acres out of ten, of which the pre-emption should
be so waived.

Six months later, that is, on the 10th October,
1844, Governor Fitzroy issued a second procla-
mation, reducing the payments to the Crown in
those cases, from Ten Shillings to one Penny an
acre. This last Proclamation was transmitted
by the then Governor, on the 14th of the same
month of October, 1844.

Lord Stanley's Despatch of the 30th November,
1844, though disapproving the first of these
Proclamations, gave a distinct, but reluctant
sanction to it. On the 27th June, 1845, his Lord-
ship, in his Despatch of that date to yourself,
directed you to recognise any sales which Go-
vernor Fitzroy might have sanctioned under his
second proclamation. But his Lordship ex-
pressed his opinion, that it was a most impolitic
arrangement, and earnestly impressed upon you
the inexpediency of allowing such purchases for
the future. On the 14th August, 1845, Lord
Stanley recurred to the subject, and expressed
his desire that the practice might be discontinued
as soon as it could be safely done, and he ex-
plained that he had understood the first procla-
mation as limited to a particular district, which
he proceeded to define, and he stated his earnest
wish to revert to the original plan of prohibiting
all direct purchases from the natives.

The result therefore seems to be that the first,
or (as it has been called), the "Ten Shilling an
acre" Proclamation, has been sanctioned by Her
Majesty's Government, in reference to the parti-
cular district defined by Lord Stanley; that the
"Penny an acre" proclamation (as it has been
termed), has been sanctioned by Her Majesty's
Government to this extent, viz.-that any sales
which Governor Fitzroy might have sanctioned
under it, were to be recognised. To whatever
extent the faith of the Crown is thus pledged to
the purchasers, it must be maintained inviolate,
be the consequent inconvenience what it may.

But, except to the extent to which any such
pledge has been given, Her Majesty remains
perfectly free to take such measures as the welfare
of Her subjects in New Zealand requires.

In assuming the right to issue any such Pro-
clamation, your predecessor was plainly exceed-
ing his lawful authority. This must be perfectly
obvious to any one who reads the Royal Char-
ter, Commission and Instructions, which enacted
and limited his powers. But though Captain
Fitzroy thus exceeded his authority, in a manner
which, even if, had there been no other reasons
for doing so, would have rendered it indispens-
able that he should be removed from the go-
vernment of New Zealand, to refuse now to
acknowledge the Claims of individuals, founded
upon acts done by him while he was in the
exercise of the powers conferred upon him by
Her Majesty's Commission, would be inexpe-
dient, since it might unjustly affect persons who
have availed themselves of the Proclamation,
in ignorance of the defective authority on which
they rested, and, also because it might very
injuriously impair the authority of those who
exercise the power of the Crown in its distant
colonial possessions, thus to establish the prin-
ciple that their exceeding their authority, vitiated
their acts, and that private individuals cannot
safely regulate their conduct upon the principle
that whatever a Governor may do under his
Commission, is to be assumed to be lawfully
and properly done, until the contrary is de-
clared by superior authority. While therefore,
on the ground of Captain Fitzroy's having
disobeyed his instructions, and also on that of
the manifest impolicy of the Proclamations of
the 26th March, 1844, and of the 10th October,
1844, and of the Notice of the 7th December,
1844, waiving the Crown's right of pre-emp-
tion, the Queen is pleased to disallow and
annul those acts, and each of them, Her Ma-
jesty is nevertheless farther pleased to declare
that this order of disallowance shall not pre-
judice any acts which may have been done in
strict pursuance of the Proclamation of the
26th March 1844, antecedently to your receipt
of this Despatch, or any acts which may have
been done in strict pursuance of, and under the
authority of the Proclamation of 10th October,
1844, antecedently to the receipt by the Go-
vernor of New Zealand, of Lord Stanley's
Despatch of the 27th June, 1845. It is Her
Majesty's further pleasure that all such acts
so done before such respective periods shall
be as valid and effectual as if the Procla-
mations under which respectively such acts
may have been done had been confirmed and
allowed by Her Majesty.

Having thus reconciled the observance of the
faith of the Crown, with the prospective abroga-
tion of these unfortunate acts of your predecessor,
it remains for me to observe that the claimants
under these Proclamations have a title resting
on no other ground but that of a strict and po-
sitive legal right, and that their titles have no
support from justice, equity, or public poli-cy.
To whatever extent they can clearly bring their
cases within the true meaning of Governor Fitz-
Roy's Proclamations to that extent their demands
must be satisfied.

But it is not merely competent to you, but is-
your plain duty, to withhold any grant from the
Crown, and any aid in any other form, from
every purchaser under these Proclamations who
shall not be able to prove in the strictest man-
ner that he has completely and literally satisfied
the requisitions of the Proclamations in every
particular they contain.

You will, therefore, refer every such claim to
the Attorney General for New Ulster, calling on
him to report whether it is in exact conformity
with the Proclamation under which it may be
preferred. And you will make no Crown Grant
to any such Claimant without the previous cer-
tificate from the Attorney General to that effect.

It will further be necessary that before any
such Crown Grant be issued, the Attorney Ge-
neral should certify to you that the natives from
whom the purchases may have been made were,
according to the native laws and customs, the
real and the sole owners of the land that they
undertook to sell. It will be the business of par-
ties claiming the benefit of such sales to produce
such evidence as the Attorney General may con-
sider to be required to enable him so to certify;
and they must do this at their own charge with-
out cost to the colonial Treasury. Finally, in