WASTE LAND BOARD.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4362, 13 March 1875, Page 5

WASTE LAND BOARD.

A meeting of the Waste Land Board was held yesterday in the Provincial Hall. Present—the Commissioner (in the chair), Mr. E. Pearce, Mr. Bunny, and Mr. Jackson (Chief Surveyor). RANGITUMAU BLOCK. The Commissioner informed the Board that two applications, each for 640 acres in the Rangitumau block, had been lodged by Mr. W. T. Clapham and Mr. Robert Bould. Since the applications were first put in, in November, 1874, the applicants laid tendered 2s. 6d. per acre, and requested to be allowed to’take up the land as agricultural instead of pastoral land. Mr. Bunny said he supposed all the Board had to do was to declare the land to be agricultural, and allow the applicants to complete their purchases at the Crown Lands Office. The Commissioner acquiesced, and stated that he had not decided the matter himself, thinking it better to bring it before the Board. The land was declared to be agricultural land, purchasable at 10s. per acre. A COMPLICATED CASE.

The Board proceeded to consider the following applications for land in the Rangitumau block, the date and hour at which they were presented and received being carefully noted in each case : William Boyce Buller, banker, Canterbury, by W. L. Boiler, applies for 4000 acres, Rangitumau block; purchase money tendered, £2OOO cash. Application put in on March 9, at 11.20 a. in. ; reached the Commissioner at 11.80 a.m., and was endorsed “ Held over for consideration and decision by the Waste Laud Board.”

Henry Bunny, Provincial Secretary, Wellington, applies for 30,000 acres of Rangitumau block; purchase money tendered, £15,000. Application put in at five minutes to 3 o’clock on the 9th of March ; received by the Commissioner at twenty minutes past 3 o’clock, and endorsed “ Held over for consideration and decision by the Waste Land Board.” The Commissioner : The next business to be proceeded with is the consideration of these two applications in conjunction with a proclamation issued by his Honor the Superintendent. To place the whole matter before the Board in a.clear and succinct manner, I •will narrate, as they occurred, all the circumstances connected with the applications and the proclamation. On Monday morning last, the Superintendent and I had a conversation touching the Rangitumau block, during which his Honor intimated his intention of withdrawing the block from sale. The plan of the block was lying on the table before us, and after referring to the Act of the Assembly bearing upon the matter, he said : “ I shall at once declare this land to be withdrawn from sale.” He, thereupon, wrote this memo, upon the plan : “Memo, for the Commissioner of Crown Lands, —I proclaim all the unsbld land on this map, set forth as an estimated area of 38,600 acres, as withdrawn from sale, under the Bth section of the amended Waste Land Regulations, province of Wellington, 1871, and request you to prepare a proclamation accordingly for my signature. W. Eitzherbert, Superintendent.—Superintendent’s office, Bth March, 1875.” The proclamation was accordupOingly prepared, and on the afternoon of that day, before four o’clock, was signed by the Superintendent. On the following day a Gazette containing the proclamation was tendered to me hy the Superintendent’s clerk, I requested him at the time to give me a note stating the time of its delivery to me. He accordingly endorsed the Gazette with these words : “ Published and delivered to the Commissioner of Crown Lands at 12.15 on the 9th day of March, 1875. W. Jones, Superintendent’s clerk.” On the afternoon of the same day he also brought, to me a copy of the Evenin'/ Post, of March 9, upon which I again requested that he should give me a note as to the time of its delivery. He wrote upon it as follows ;—“ Handed to the Commissioner of Crown Lands at 3.40 p.m. W. Jones, Superintendent’s clerk. 9-3-75.” On the Monday, in the morning, Mr. Buller, on behalf of William Boyce Buller, intimated to me his desire to become a purchaser within the Rangitumau Hock. I produced the tracing of the land, with the Superintendent’s memo written upon it, which he read, and I said, “In the face of that memo, I do not think you can apply for any of this land. It is withdrawn from sale.” He hesitated, and demurred, and argued the points with me, and I said, “ I can only receive your application subject to the approval of the Waste Land Board.” He raised a question as to the validity of the Superintendent’s action, and I told him I was not qualified to give an opinion upon that matter, that that was a question for lawyers to determine, and that all I could do was to submit his application to (the Waste Land Board. No application was put in that day. On the following morning (Tuesday), Mr. Buller came in and put in an application at twenty minutes past eleven, which reached my hands through the Receiver of Land Revenue, at half-past eleven. The time of its receipt was minuted, and it was endorsed, “ Held over for consideration and decision by the Waste Laud Board.” On the afternoon of the same day Mr. Bunny tendered an application for land in the same block. That application was marked as having been presented at five minutes to three o’clock; it reached ray hands at twenty minutes past three, some , delay having, arisen in obtaining an exact description of the land. Mr. Bunny was told the land had been withdrawn from sale ; that I had received a Gazette containing a proclamation to that effect, and that if his application were received at all it would be dealt with in the same way the prior application would be dealt with—that it would be submitted to the Waste Land. Board. These are the whole of the circumstances, and it is now for the Board to deal with the matter. Mr. Buller : Do I understand, Mr. Commissioner, that Mr. Bunny is sitting as a member of the Board ? The Commissioner : Yes.

Air. Bullee : .Then I-must protest against Mr. Bunny adjudicating in the matter. The whole question .turnis upon .an application put in by Air. Bunny himself, and it is monstrous that he should take his seat at the" Board while such an application .is- being discussed. If Mi - . Bunny does sit, I ; must ask you to take a minute of my protest , against such proceedings. The Commissioner directed the clerk to take a minute as requested. Air. Bunny : lam glad the Commissioner has made a statement regarding the facts of the case, and I am equally pleased that Air. Buller has thought fit to protest against my taking part in the proceedings as a member of the. Board. But the Commissioner put the matter before the Board as if “Air. Bunny” had ■ made an application, and left out altogether any allusion to the circumstances under which Air. Bunny took action' in the matter at all. The fact is, Air. Bunny, as Air. Bunny, has nothing at all to do with the question. The action has been taken by the Provincial Secretary of the province, and in sitting here I do so to protect the interests of the province. The action taken by me was taken to protect the province from what we believe to be a great wrong. It was taken after consultation with the Attorney-General, and the General Government entirely approve of what has been done. I will explain now what has been done. It came to our knowledge on Tuesday morning that an application had been put in by Air. Buller for a considerable portion of this Kangitumau block, which was on the previous day withdrawn from sale by proclamation of his Honor the Superintendent. It also came to the knowledge of the Government that three or four persona who had applied to put in applications on the Tuesday morning for portions of this particular block, had been met with the answer that the land was withdrawn from sale by proclamation of the Superintendent, and the Government thought it was only fair that all parties should be put upon the same footing—-that there should be no favoritism because one person might have a certain amount of legal knowledge which the other persons had not. \Ve communicated with the General Government, in order to get their support to the proclamation of his Honor. Between one and two o’clock in the afternoon, I went up to the Government Buildings and saw Air. Reynolds and Alajor Atkinson, and we talked the matter over. They consulted the Attorney-General, and the result of the conference was that the General Government offered to advance sufficient money to buy in the whole block and put a stop to Air. Buller’s application. I arrived at the Commissioner’s office at five minutes to three on Tuesday afternoon, and said, “ I have come as Provincial Secretary to purchase the whole of this block. lam acting with the consent of the General Government, and I wish to tender to you a cheque for £15,000 as purchase money.” The Commissioner said it, would take some little time to define the boundaries, and so forth. In the meantime I had got a Gazette out, which was served upon the Commissioner, and I told him the newspaper would shortly be out, so that %ve should be able to serve him with a copy of it before his office closed. Then, I put in an application as Provincial Secretary, and the - ; money was paid by cheque from the General Government. The Commissioner was in my office about half-past 3 o’clock, and while there, Air. Jones, the Superintendent’s clei'k, came in with a copy of the Evening Post , and served it upon the Commissioner. At that time my application had been put in in proper form, but when the newspaper arrived, the Commissioner said to me : “ I cannot receive your application now. You are shut out by the proclamation in the Gazette , and the notification in the newspaper.” The Commissioner : Pardon me, sir, there is not one word of truth in that. Your application had been received.

Mr. Bunny : Very well, then, I will say no more about that. I am sorry to differ with the .Commissioner, but I am prepared to take my oath that you said : “ Now, your application is shut out.” I pointed out, as I wish to point out now, that I was acting in the public interest. I read the law upon the subject, and the Commissioner admitted that he was wrong, and received the application. The Government maintained that the proclamation was sufficient in itself to shut out Mr. Buffer’s application; at all events, they maintained this: that as by the land regulations an application which came in a minute after 10 o’clock in the morning had no priority oyer an application ' received a minute before 4 o’clock in the afternoon, any proclamation of the Government which shut out the application before 4 o’clock applied to the whole’of the applications received that day. Therefore, both applications should be refused. I sit here in the performance of my duty to advocate that opinion ; and, in the interests of, the province, I shall see it carried out if I can. Mr. Buller : The whole gist of the matter is, I maintain, that my application was put in before Mr. Bunny’s, and I most strenuously protest against his taking part in a discussion which may affect my right of priority. Mr. Bunny has defended his position here by stating that he acted in an official capacity. Then I protest against his sitting here as judge in his own case. To my mind that indicates a very undesirable state of things. . What would be said of a judge who should give a decision in a case in which he was privately interested ? Mr. Pearce : Mr.. Bunny sits here in virtue of his office, and he made the application in virtue of his office. I see no objection, therefore, to his taking his seat as a member of the Board.

Mr. Jackson : I see no objection to Mr. Bunny sitting here. Mr. Pearce : May I ask you, Mr. Commissioner, to explain a statement in: your opening explanation ? You said Mr. Buller came to you on Monday, the Bth, about his application. That was the day on which the proclamation was signed ? The Commissioner ; Yes.

Mr. Pearce : Was the proclamation signed before or after Mr. Buller came to your office ? The Commissioner : It was signed after.

Mr. Pearce: Was this memorandum written on the plan after Mr. Buffer’s application ?

The Commissioner : The circumstances were these : It is within my knowledge that on the previous Saturday Mr. Buffer saw the Provincial Secretary and the Superintendent, and the Superintendent urged him to purchase this land, stating that it was well worth his attention. Mr. Buffer Said he could not purchase it without seeing it, and that he would go and see it. On Monday morning Mr. Buller came to my office and said he wished to purchase some land in the Rangitumau block, desiring at the same time to know whether there was any person connected with the Government in the neighborhood of Mastertou who could accompany him to the block. I told him there was. Mr. Buller was still in my office when I went to speak to the Superintendent, and it was then the Superintendent wrote the memorandum on the plan withdrawing the land from sale.

Mr. Bui.lkr : I wish to put this point before the Board ; that when I saw the Commissioner in his office on the Monday I was prepared to pay him the money for the land. It was the disinclination of the Commissioner to receive it that prevented me paying him. He said, “ I must leave your application to the decision of the Waste Land Board, from whom there is no appeal; ” but I maintain that the Superintendent was guilty of a breach of faith in acting as he has done. Had he, at our interview, said “You must make up your mind now/’ I should have had nothing to complain of ; but I had arranged that I should have time to go up and see the land. I submit, therefore, that the Superintendent has been guilty of a breach of trust. However, on the Monday I went to the Commissioner's office, and expressed my willingness to complete the purchase. He said he would receive my application, but that it would be mere waste of time to proceed further, as my chance of success was hopeless. I did not think so, and to fortify myself I put in an application in the morning (Tuesday). It may be that the proclamation was signed the night before, but it was not promulgated till Tuesday. Clause 8 of the Act says that the land must be withdrawn from sale “ by proclamation in the Gazette of the province, and in

some newspaper.” . I contend that before, the proclamation had taken! 'effect ray application was in and before the Board. t To say that ,an officer of the Government' may, sign a proclamation, an'd| carry it about in. his trousers pocket.for a year or a month,, or a day, is ..an absurdity. The Act is hot -, a, penal Act, and we must,, therefore, endeavor .to arrive,at the intention'of’ the Legislature- Clause ,8, clearly shows that the intention was to give effect to a proclamation by notifying, it, through anOfficial channel, the Gazette, and to give it wider circulation’by publication in some newspaper circulating in the province. - I argue, therefore, that my application was in before the issue of the proclamation. It cannot be argued that the proclamation has a retrospective effOct. It was signed by- the Superintendent on Alonday, and was not'published to the world till about half-past twelve o’clock on the following day. Aly application was in two hours before that publication. I wish next to draw the attention of the Board to the provisions of the Waste Land Boards Appeal Act, 1867, one clause of which states that it is competent for a party who may . feel himself aggrieved to apply to the Board to reserve any point of. law, upon which there may be a doubt, for discussion before a Judge of tho Supreme Court. If the Board has any doubt upon the legal aspect of the case, I must ask it to state a case for submission to a Judge. I shall not attempt to : argue the case any further here.

Air. Bunny ; If the Board decides against you, you can apply to the Supreme Court yourself.

Air. Pearce : You have not in any way. Air. Buller, referred to the Provincial Secretary’s application as being simultaneous with your own. You are aware that no application takes priority of others presented on the same day. . Air. Buller: As I read the law, applications can only be received by the Commissioner in respect of lands open for selection. I maintain that this land was not open for selection on Tuesday. I was prepared to take it up on Monday. I tendered, and actually put in my money, on Alonday morning, before the pro-. clamation had taken effect. There is one other point to which I wish to direct the attention of the Board, and that is this ; whether the Provincial Secretary, as such, can become an applicant. There are Acts’which empower the Superintendent, as such, to become seized of land, but I do not know that there are any which enable a Provincial Secretary to become so seized.

The Commissioner ; It is clear that we require a definition of the law as to whether the proclamation was in force as soon as the Superintendent had intimated in writing on the plan that the laud was withdrawn, or whether it was not in force until the Gazette was published.

Air. Bunny ; The best thing we can do is to decide that the applications are invalid, and allow any person who thinks differently to take what proceedings he thinks fit. The Commissioner : I think we should not come to a decision in ignorance of the law of the case.

Air. Bunny : But we .-are not deciding in Ignorance, according to my opinion. The Commissioner : Well, what is your opinion ? .

Mr. Bunny' ; Pirst I take it that the proclamation of Monday is valid and effectual. To say that it is necessary before a proclamation becomes valid that it must appear in the Gazette and in a newspaper, is all very well, and we say that has been done, so that there is really nothing to be argued. Then there is no hour at which the office is closed to any particular application lodged on the same day as other applications. Any proclamation that, bars an application lodged at a quarter to four bars an application lodged at a quarter past ten. All that Mr. Buffer contended for was that tlm whole thing must be done by publicacation in the Gazette and in a newspaper. That had been done, and done in office hours. What more does Air. Buffer require ’ Mr. Buller : You are putting a misconstruction upon what I said. Mr. Bunny : I should like to know, sir, if an outside person is to be allowed to get up and combat every suggestion made by a member of the Board in discussing the applications before it.

Mr, Buller : But you are acting as counsel on your own side. Mr. Bunny : Yea, and I have not finished speaking. Will you sit down till I have done. Mr. Buller ; Certainly, sir. Mr. Bunny : When Mr. Buller says I am acting as counsel in this case, I may tell him that I do not act upon the advice of persons incompetent to decide between right and wrong. Idoit to protect other persons who desire to apply for some of this land, as against a person who thinks he has some knowledge of law.

The Commissioner : I may explain that directly I heard that other persons, amongst them Mi 1 . McTavish, desired to make application, I directed Mr. Baird to tell them that they could put in'their applications and stand upon the same footing as the others. Mr. Bulled : I was about to explain, when Mr. Bunny interrupted me, that it was not ray contention at all that it was necessary to publish both in the Gazette and the newspaper. I hold that promulgation is the very essence of the proclamation, and that on its appearance in the Gazette it took effect, but not till then. According to Mr. Bunny’s view, it would be competent for the Superintendent at any time to issue a proclamation at five minutes to four o’clock, and thus defeat any application which might have been lodged with the Cominisioner on the same day.’ The discussion being concluded, the Board adjourned for ten minutes, and upon reassembling, ■ The Commissioner stated that, having considered the applications,'the Board was of opinion that: under all the circumstances both applications should be rejected. The Board then adjourned.