DRAFT OF ORDINANCE TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 15, 19 April 1851, Page 6

DRAFT OF ORDINANCE TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, March 29th, 1851. His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief directs the publication, for general information, of the following abstract of an Ordinance for determining claims to land, to be submitted to the General Legislative Council at its ensuing Session. By His Excellency's command, Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary. A Bill to enable the Local Government to determine conflicting claims to conveyances arising from land-orders, or other contracts, with the New Zealand Company ; to issue grants of land in fulfilment of contracts with the New Zealand Company; to issue scrip in exchange for land; to exchange sections with the owners thereof by means of scrip; to determine disputes relating to boundaries of land, and to perform and conclude all contracts, made between the New Zealand Company and their purchasers respecting land in these Islands. 1. Enacts that, in cases of doubtful or disputed title, a grant by the Governor of the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, for the estate or interest, to which any purchaser, whether original or derivative, from the New Zealand Company may, in the opinion of a Commissioner appointed for the purpose, be entitled at the time of the issue of the grant, shall be deemed both at law and in equity a full and complete performance by the Crown on behalf of the New Zealand Company of the contract to convey the said lands, &c. 2. All grants shall be in the form of the schedule hereunto annexed, and may be issued for a section, or for a part or parts thereof, without reference to the original survey. 3. The Colonial Secretary may, at the request of a grantee or his agent, endorse on the grant the date at which the legal estate vested in the grantee, which legal estate shall be deemed and taken to have been in the grantee from the date so endorsed thereon. I 4. In all cases whore the New Zealand Comi

! pany may have contracted to deliver a particular section of land, and it is not in the power of the Government to deliver such section, an appraisement of its value may be made jointly by the person entitled to the same and the Government, and the Governor may issue scrip to the amount of the value so ascertained, which scrip shall be received as cash in the purchase of all lands offered for sale by the Government in the Province of New Minister: provided that the amount of scrip shall, in no case, be less than the amount originally paid to the New Zealand Company for the land. 5. Any person having acquired a section of land from the New Zealand Company, and'*1 wishing to resign it before the issue of a Grant, under the provisions of this bill may, on giving notice within eighteen months from the passing of the Bill, do so, and receive an amount of scrip equal in amount to the sum paid to the New Zealand Company, which scrip shall be available as cash in the purchase of any Government land within the Province. 6. In all cases where the New Zealand Company has issued scrip, expressing that the holder is entitled to so many acres of land, or to land of the value of so many pounds, the holder thereof will be required to select his land within six months from the passing of this bill, and the Governor may at any time issue scrip of the kind before mentioned, in exchange for the scrip of the New Zealand Company, at the rate of one pound sterling for every acre of land the holder may be entitled to select, or for one pound sterling for every pound payable in land, to which the holder of such scrip may be entitled. 7. In all cases where the boundaries of lands, the title to which was acquired from or through the New Zealand Company, are disputed, the Governor may appoint a Commissioner to determine the boundaries in dispute, and may issue a Grant according to the boundaries of the land determined by such Commissioner. 8. From and after the date of the passing of the Bill, the 13th chapter of the Eoyal Instructions, relating to the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown, bearing date the 23rd of December, 1846, shall be revived and be in force in all the settlements containing lands affected by contracts between the New Zealand Company and their purchasers, in so far as such Instructions may not be repugnant to this Bill.

SCHEDULE. TORM OP GRANT. Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, and so forth: To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas, under and by virtue of a certain Act of Parliament, made and passed in the eleventh year of our reign, intituled " An Act to promote Colonization to New Zealand, and to authorize a Loan to the New Zealand Company," the said Company have under the provisions of the said Act given notice that they were ready to surrender the Charters of the said Company to us, whereby all the Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments of the said Company, in the colony of New Zealand, have become vested in us as part of the Demesne Lands of the Crown, subject nevertheless to any Contracts subsisting in regard to any of the said Lands. And whereas, It hath been made manifest to us, that of under and by virtue of a Contract some time since entered into by the said Company, is entitled to a grant of Land hereinafter described : Now know ye, that in part performance and fulfilment of the several subsisting Contracts entered into by the said Company, for the sale y and conveyance of Land in our said territory, as provided for in the said recited Act, we, for us, our heirs and successors, do hereby grant unto the said his heirs and assigns, all that allotment or parcel of land * ; in our said territory, situated y> and which said land is more particularly ' delineated and described in the Plan drawn in the Margin hereof, with all the Rights and Appurtenances whatsoever thereto belonging: To hold unto the said his heirs and assigns for ever. In testimony whereof, we have caused this our grant to be sealed with the Seal of ouv said Territory. Witness, our trusty and well-beloved Sir George Grey, Knight, Commander of the most Honourable Order of the Bath, Go-vertior-in-Chief, and Commander-in-Chief

of our said Territory and its Dependencies, ) and Governor of our Province of New Minister, at in New Zealand aforesaid, this day of in the Year of our Reign, and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-one.