(95)

The same rule will be extended to the Penny an
acre claimants for blocks not exceeding five hundred
acres, (whether the land may be cultivated or not),
whose claims have been, or may hereafter be favorably
reported on by the Commissioner, on their paying
Five Shillings an acre, within the same period of time.

The same Grant and a Title upon the same terms,
will be issued to all the Penny an acre claimants, in
whose favor the Crown's right of pre-emption may have
been waived over more than five hundred acres of land.
But in these cases, the quantity of land granted (on
which alone the fee will be demandable), will never
exceed five hundred acres, and any title which the
claimant may have acquired, over the remaining por-
tion of the claim, will remain in the Crown; but the
Government will not undertake to extend this last
rule to a distance from the town of Auckland exceeding
twenty miles.

It must also be distinctly understood that the Go-
vernment will in no case extend the rules relating to
the Penny an acre claims, to those cases, in which
there is any probability of the title to the land being
justly disputed by adverse native claimants.

The fee of Five Shillings an acre demanded upon
claims of this character, are intended to cover the
expenses of the Commissioner's court, the Govern-
ment surveys, and to satisfy any native claimant, who
may afterwards appear, the Government by giving an
absolute title taking upon itself to make the title good.

I should further state to the Council one important
modification which will, whenever necessary be made
in these regulations, and the reasons upon which it is
grounded.

The Governors of all British possessions, previously
to permitting lands to be offered for sale, are required
to cause them to be examined by the Surveyor General,
in order that such lands as are required for public pur-
poses, especially as the sites of villages, and towns, &c.,
may be reserved for public purposes. In the instance
of the claims which have arisen in this colony, no such
examination was previously made by the Surveyor
General, nor was the country mapped, or the bounda-
ries of the claims definitely assigned, or their position
in reference to each other defined. It will therefore not
be in the power of the Government to give grants to
any of the claimants for those lands which may be
indispensably required for public purposes, and in all
grants which may be issued, the Government will re-
serve to itself the right of marking out and taking pos-
session of the land required for present or future public
roads through such grants, at any time within twelve
months from the date of the grant, without making any
compensation to the proprietors.

In those cases, however, in which lands claimed un-
der my predecessor's proclamations, are retained by the
Government for sites of Towns or Villages, any ex-
penses which the claimants may have been justly put to,
shall be returned to them, and some compensation in
the form of land in the Village or Town shall be made
to them.

The Council will also perceive that the Government,
by the means which have been taken to have accurate
surveys of these claims made, and their boundaries
clearly defined, in the manner in which they will ap-
pear in the Grants, have in as far as possible removed
all grounds of future dispute and litigation between the
respective claimants.

It only remains for me to repeat, that I have adopted
the arrangements I have detailed to the Council, from
a most sincere desire to terminate speedily and satis-
factorily, the almost inextricable mass of difficulties
which have arisen with respect to these claims—and at
the same time from a cordial wish to promote to the
utmost, the interests of the really industrious settler,
with whom I always warmly sympathise; I trust, there-
fore, that the Council will lend me any aid in their
power for the purpose of promoting the speedy com-
pletion of the proposed objects.

Council Chamber,
Auckland, August 7th, 1847.
G. GREY.

LIST OF CLAIMS REPORTED ON BY THE COMMIS-
SIONER, AND THE TITLE DEEDS FOR WHICH ARE
NOW IN COURSE OF PREPARATION.

Land Commissioner's Office,
Auckland, 9th August, 1847.

I HENRY MATSON, a Commissioner
appointed for examining and reporting
on all Claims to Compensation preferred ac-
cording to the provisions of an Ordinance,
Session 7, No. 22, intituled " An Ordinance
to authorise Compensation in Colonial De-
bentures to be made to certain Claimants to
Land in the Colony of New Zealand," do
hereby notify, that I will investigate the un-
dermentioned Claims at the Council Chamber,
on Monday, the 30th day of August, 1847,
at ten o'clock in the forenoon.

The Cases will be heard in the order in
which they stand in the following List, and
all parties interested, are hereby summoned
to be in attendance with their documents and
witnesses.

HENRY MATSON,
Commissioner