THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
497
Ministers respectfully request His Excellency to
forward the Attorney-General's Memorandum to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, with a request
either that a Bill may be submitted to the Imperial
Parliament, declaring the meaning of the provision
in question, if such meaning, in the opinion of the
Law Advisers of the Crown, be not inconsistent with
the Land Registry Acts of the Colony; or in the
event of that not being the opinion of the Law
Advisers of the Crown, then a Bill providing such
remedy as he may be advised the circumstances of
the case require.

Wellington, 6th May, 1867.
E. W. STAFFORD.

Memorandum by the Attorney-General of New Zealand
on the operation of the Land Registry Acts on Lands
granted by the Crown under certain Acts of the
Imperial Legislature relating to the New Zealand
Company and their Contracts.

IN consequence of doubts in the Colony as to the
true construction of certain words in the fifty-first
section of the 9th and 10 Vict., c. 382 (The New
Zealand Company's Act), and the incompetency of
the Colonial Legislature to deal with cases falling
within that section, if the generally received con-
struction of such words be the true construction,
lands to which New Zealand Company's Land Orders
related have not been allowed to be registered under
"The Land Registry Act, 1860."

As to lands in the principal towns and suburban
districts, these doubts and difficulties render "The
Land Registry Act, 1860," almost wholly inoperative;
and it is very much to be desired that the Imperial
Legislature should, if such be the case, declare that
the meaning of the words in the section above referred
to is such that the supposed difficulty does not in
fact exist, or that if the words truly construed do
create the difficulty, it should settle the doubt by a
declaratory Act, and also either by direct legislation
remove the difficulty or authorize the General
Assembly by legislation to remove the difficulty.

I proceed now to draw attention to the provisions
in the Imperial Acts which have created the difficulty
above referred to, and as to the construction of which
doubts exist in the Colony. The effect which these
provisions have hitherto had in impeding the bringing
into operation "The Land Registry Act, 1860," will
also be pointed out.

The 9th and 10th Vict., c. 382 (The New Zealand
Company's Act) in the fifty-first section, after
reciting that divers land orders or contracts for the
sale of land in New Zealand had been issued by the
Company, but as to which no conveyances had then
been required, and that from deaths of and dealings
by purchasers conflicting claims to conveyances might
arise, enacts: That a conveyance by the Company of
the lands to which any such land order shall relate to
the purchaser named in such order, on his request, or
to any person deriving title from, through, or under
such purchaser, on the request of such person and on
proof of his title to the satisfaction of the persons
therein mentioned, shall be deemed both at law and
in equity, as well in the Colony as elsewhere, a
complete performance by the Company of the contract
contained in such order to convey the land, and shall
exonerate the Company from all responsibility as to
the disposition of such land or any other matter
consequent on or resulting from such conveyance;
"but notwithstanding any rule of law and equity to
the contrary prevailing in the Colony of New Zealand
or elsewhere, the land, tenements, and hereditaments
comprised in any such conveyance, shall continue and
be subject to such equitable estates, charges, and
liens, if any, created by the purchaser or purchasers
named in the land order or contract to which the
same shall relate, or any person deriving title from,
through, or under him, her, or them, as at the date
of such conveyance shall be subsisting, or be then or
thereafter capable of taking effect, and the rights and
interests or the parties interested as or through the
purchaser or purchasers named in such land order or
contract (inter se) shall remain unaffected thereby."

The 10th and 11th Vict., c. 112 (the New Zealand
Company's Colonization Act) in the nineteenth
section, after reciting that it is expedient to provide
for the contingency of the Company finding them-
selves unable to continue their proceedings with
profit to themselves and benefit to the Colony, enacts,
amongst other things, that if the Directors shall give
the notice therein mentioned within three months
after 5th April, 1850, that they are to surrender the
charters of the Company to Her Majesty and all
their lands in the Colony, the powers of the Company
shall cease, and all their lands revert and become
vested in Her Majesty, subject to any contracts
which shall then be subsisting in regard to any of
the lands.

In the 14th and 15th Vict., c. 84 (the New Zealand
Company's Settlements Act), recites in the preamble
that the notice provided for in section nineteenth of
10th and 11th Vict., c. 112, had been delivered on
4th July, 1850, and that thereupon all the Company's
lands in New Zealand had reverted and become
vested in Her Majesty as part of the demesne lands
of the Crown in New Zealand, subject as by the said
Act (10th and 11th Vict., c. 112) is provided. In
the tenth section of this Act (14th and 15th Vict. c.
84) it is provided that in all cases falling within the
provisions of the fifty-first section of the 9th and
10th Vict., c. 382 (that is, in cases of conveyances of
land as to which land orders has been issued by the
Company) a grant from the Crown shall have the like
force and effect in all respects as a conveyance by
the Company would have had by virtue of the said
Act if the aforesaid notice had not been given, and
the Company continued to exercise its powers. The
force and effect which a conveyance by the Company
would have had is defined by the said fifty-first
section. It would have been deemed a complete
performance by the Company of the contract con-
tained in the order, and would have exonerated the
Company from all responsibility as to the disposition
of the land; but the lands comprised in such con-
veyance would have continued, and would be subject
"to any equitable estate charges and liens created by
the purchaser named in the land order, or by any
person deriving title from such purchaser, and then
(at date of conveyance) subsisting, or then or there-
after capable of taking effect, and the rights and
interests of parties interested either as or through
the purchasers named in the land order, would have
remained unaffected by such conveyance. The result
is, that in cases of Crown Grants of lands to which
any New Zealand Company's land order relates, the
Crown is exonerated from all responsibility, but the
land continues to be and is subject to any such
equitable estate charges or liens as may have been or
may be subsisting at the time of the issue of the
grant, and the rights and interests of the parties
interested as or through purchasers named in the
land order remain unaffected by the grant made
by the Crown, and "this notwithstanding any
rule of law or equity to the contrary prevailing
in the Colony or elsewhere." Whether any rule
of law or equity in particular are here referred
to, and whether rules of the statute law as well
as common law, there is nothing in the Act to
show. A grant from the Crown, executed by the
Governor by virtue of his commission under the
public Seal of the Colony, is generally assumed to
have the same effect as a grant from the Crown