THE HUNDREDS REGULATIONS BILL.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1952, 7 August 1869, Page 2

THE HUNDREDS REGULATIONS BILL.

Tlio following letter has heen addressed to the Bruce Standard :—

“Sir, —I have only jiwt seen your journal of the 24th July, in which you state that Mr Macandrew introduced the Bill to regulate the future declaration of Hundreds, which has passed the House of Representatives. “ As the member of the Ministry who introduced the Bill, I heg to assure you that Mr Macandrew ha 1 nothing whatever to do with it. The Waste Lauds Committee, which consists of a 'arge number of members of both Houses sitting jointly, had had before it the Report of the Commissioners on the Otago Waste L inds, a number of Petitions referred to it by order of the House, and the Reports and Evidence of the two Committees of the Provincial Council which, last session, sat on the questions of Hundreds and Commonage. The Waste Lands Committee, at the instance of members entirely unconnected with the Pi evince of Otago, passed the series of Res hit ions on which the Bill is founded, and asked the Government to prepare and biing in a bill in accordance with them The Resolutions were placed in the AttorneyGeneral’s hands, and he drew tire Bill to meet their object. What Mr Macandrew did was to give notice, as soon as the Bil came before the House, of clau-es to limit the compensation to be paid to ruuholdcrs ou the proclamation of Hundreds; and when these clauses, which Mr Howorth (member for Taieri) had been a ked to draw, in consultation with the Attorney-General, came before the House, I adopted them, and they now form part of the Bill. The divisions by which the maxi mum of compensation was settled resulted in satisfying the doubts entertained by some members as to the original provisions on that point; but on the main principle of the Bil, namely, that the declaration of Hundreds should no longer be left cither to Executive action or the" decision of the Provincial Council, there was not one dissentient voice in the (louse ; and Mr Macandrew is not for a moment responsible for that fcc’ing which the Report of the Commission- rs and the proceedings of the Provincial Council itscli had caused. “ It will hereafter he admitted that while providing a fair means and plan of declaring future Hundreds, the Bill legally carries out the true intent of the Hundreds system, and enables effect to be given to it. 't any rate the responsibility of it lies with me, not with Mr Macandrew.—l am, &c., “ F. Dillon Bell “ House of Representatives, Wellington, 2nd August, 18G9.”