THE “LAND CLAIMS.”

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 1, Issue 31, 15 April 1843, Page 2

THE “LAND CLAIMS.”

How< will the “Land Claims” be finally settled? may at this time of'day appear a startling question. Let any one read our Extracts from the. Pariiamen tary Papers in the Chronicle 6P to-day, and he will find the questidtf* is not asked without reason. True It-is that an Ordinance was passed in the last Session of the Council to “sett e the Land Claims:” hut the Local Ordinances are subject to the confirmation or disallowance of- the Queen: Her Majesty ’afiat not having been notified to the public, the probability is,, that the “ Land Claims’ Ordinance” is still under consideration.—-Will it he confirmed or disallowed ?—To the Claimants “ that is the question.” :iyr I In his address on opening the Session, the Governor informs the that lie deems it essential to the successful colonization of the Sir George Glpps’ Act shouid be ly remodelled, and that some oid r p ! an should bo-devised by which grant* of land may he made, so as n. CtoC' danger the future prosperity of Colony ; lie then at considerable bn^ 1 develops the. princip es on whichj ,e purposes, to effect this." object.. ,c j scheme thus-proposed is Lard Stanley for the opinion Colonization Commisskiners who, » 3 "' jeetto certain iuconsklerab'e qu#' 1 ’ tions, say that they ‘ seeno reason" 11 ' the plans, proposed by the should not be approved.” . Singularly enough the First®! which differed slightly from the G 111

adopted ns if by anti ipation every one If the amendments suggested by the Commissioners. On the 1 !th of July, ]B4'-. bold Stanley, who did not then j- no \v of the abandonment of the proposed scheme, and the withdrawal of the Bib* expresses to Captain Hobson jjj s general concurrence in the remarks of the Commissioners' Report, adding, “in a case so anomalous as the satisfy tion of Claims for past expenditure, under titles which are the subject of local investigation, I feel that 1 must necessarily leave much to you and your Council.” Concurring generally in the proposed plan, and disposed to rely 0 n the Governor and Council, we find Lord Stanley on the 14th July transmitting to the Earl of Aberdeen, the Foreign Secretary, as bearing upon ihe -tMes to property of French subjects irt New Zealand, “the address of Governor Hobson to the Legislati e Council of New Zealand, with reference to tlve general settlement of c'aims to land in those is'ands.” This address was forwarded by the Foreign Secretary to Lord Cowley, our Minister at Paris, to be communicated to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. Under date March, 1842, in a communication to the New Zealand Company, on the subject of the Chatham Islands, Lord Stanley states that all the laws of New Zealand will be in force there regarding land purchased from the Natives; by which laws, he adds, no purchase could be recognised “to a greater extent than 2,500 acres in the case of any one purchaser.” It will be remembered too, that, in expressing his concurrence in the Governor’s scheme, Lord Stanley impresses upon him the necessity of observing “ great care in respect of previous claims, to keep strictly within the limits of advantage offered to the New Zealand Company, &c.” Tire Bill embodying, with some modifications, the Governor’s plan, it will be well remembered was, from the strong opposition of some of the Claimants, ultimately withdrawn ; and the present Ordinance passed. By this Ordinance the quantity of land to be granted, is not limited to 2,500 acres. The clause which enacts, that when goods shall have been given for land, their value shah be estimated at three times the Sydney price, is at variance with the rule prescribed for the New Zealand Company, and the principle of the Bill differs in toto from that, which the French Government were informed by Her Majesty's Government, was about to be adopted in the settlement of ■claims to land in this Colony. At the end of our Legislative Session, Lord Stanley would learn that the original Bid had been withdrawn, and the present one passed. What reasons Captain Hobson may have given for withdrawing the Bill, we shall probably not have any means of knowing until the next publication of Parliamentary Papers; but Lord Stanley would doubtless receive a copy of Captain Hobson’s speech on closing the Session. If he had stated that the opposition to the Bill was almost universal, aid that his opinion as to its beneficial tendency, had been materially shaken, there would be little reason to doubt the present Bill being confirmed. But such w r as not the case ; far from it. “Believing” says lie, in his speech on closing the Session, “ though it. would now seem erroneously, the c amour raised by its introduction to represent the feelings of the Claimants generally, 1 deemed it my duty to withdraw the Bill first introduced, See.,” * * *. “I be ieve the time is not far distant when it will be as generally considered, that t-e original Land Claims Bill would not only have promoted the successful colonization of the country, but would at the same time have materially advanced the interests of the Claimant.” Considering ail these circumstances, our opening question is not unreasonab'e. “How will the Land Claims be finally settled ?” Not having had occasion to involve ourselves in the discussion of this difficu't and perplexing question; w r e shall not do s ) now at the eleventh hour. —In common with all who are interested in tiie prosperity of the Colony, and tne welfare of our fellow colonists, we regret that the sett ement of claims to land should still remain an unsettled question. The uncertainty which has so long hung over the tit e*s to land of so numerous a body of settlers, cmpoverishing their means, and destroying their energies, has, we believe, retarded the progress of successful Coionization almost beyond ca'euhition.