CORRESPONDENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1731, 24 January 1885, Page 12

CORRESPONDENCE.

Land for Settlement.

TO THE BDITOB,

Stß, — Tho attempt on the part ot tha Government to dictate to the various Land Boards throughout New Zealand I have not the slightest' hesitation in pronouncing a piece of very gross impertinence, The Land Board is constituted by the Act a judicial body or court with full power to interpret and decide upon the meaning of the Act, and the Legislature has provided that in any case of doubt on any question of law the Board may submit a case in writing to a judge or judges of the Supreme Court ; has laid upon the Supreme Court the duty of certifying its opinion upon such question of law to the Board, and has directed that the Board shall be guided by such ©pinion,— (Section S3, Land Act 1877.)

On questions, therefore, affecting the rights of settlers, upon the Board thus assisted lies the obligation of deciding what those rights may be.

So eager, however, is the present Government to pursue and harass the deferredpayment settlers that, not content with forcing a statute through the General Assembly in the face of the opposition and the protests of every member who had any real knowledge of land settlement at all - a statute at variance with every sound principle of public policy, and which has already become a bye-word in the profession as a sample of legal incapacity on the part of its author —a statute which is so grossly unjust, so subversive of every principle of fair dealing, that our highest Court of law has refused to believe that it really < did mean what we all very well know it was intended by its author, at least, to mean : I say, not content with forcing such a statute through the General Assembly without giving the persons whoße interests were so deeply affected an opportunity of learning its provisions or appealing against its adoption by the Legislature, the Government in the most shameful manner now seek to coerce the Land Boards into interpreting its provisions to have retrospective operation. Fortunately, bo far, the boards have quietly refused to be coerced. In the teeth of official ' memoranda and official circulars requiring them to do otherwise, the Otago Board has interpreted the Act for itself in the only way in which any reasonable person of any competence could possibly interpret it, and has already passed applications to purchase after the three years' occupation, notwithstanding the pressure brought to bear upon it. Sir, I ask myself if the Government is thus Becking to interfere with the discharge of responsible judicial functions in a case like that of the Land Board, and a Minister feels free to address his circular No. 16 to commissioners of Crown Lands directing them to interpret the law affecting the right of settlers and citizens of the country as tha Government pleases, what are we to have next? Are we being gently prepared for a circular No. 17 or No. 71, and the Judges of the Supreme Court directing them also how statutes are to ba interpreted ? Fortunately the Judges of our Supreme Court, like all British judges, are made. of stuff which could not tolerate the impertinence, and they might be safely trusted to guard the liberties and the rights of British subjects, and to vindicate the insulted dignity of their order and their Court; but the impropriety of such an interference with the administration of justice would be of precisely the samo kind, though possibly of a different degree to that exhibited by the now famouß circular No. 16. The Olago Laud Board is, fortunately, not likely to prove so facile an instrument of injustice as the Minister expects ; and my advice to him, if he caves to have it, is in future to endeavour to attend to his own business, and leave the Board to administer the Act as the Legislature has directed : it will probably be time enough for him to submit his interpretations of the Act when they, are asked for.

And here, Sir, in conclusion, let me say a few words in regard to the "enthusiasm of confidence" with which all thinking personß in thi3 part of the world are supposed to regard the Hon. the Premier, according to a recent authority. For myself, I may be a thinking or an unthinking person, but if I have any enthusiasm at all on the subjept it is certainly one of mistrust rather than confidence.

On the subject of land settlement as being practically carried out in this Colony I fancy I have about aa complete information and knowledge as any person in the Colony, and I have no hesitation whatever in saying that Mr Stout has dove more than any other 10 men in the Colony to damage and retard settlement, and that the effects of his work are very much more serious than it is possible for any person not thoroughly acquainted with the subject to conceive.

When last in power he framed and passed "The Crown Lands Sales Act 1877," which had the effect of very seriously retarding settlement for a period of two years, when its absurdity and unworkableness were so fully demonstrated that it had to be repealed ; and now -this session he has placed an Act upon our Statute-book which is a disgrace to the Colony, arid which will have eyeo ajcra eoricus

effects upon settlement than his previous effort at land legislation had. The storm of indignation which has been already raised in the breasts of settlers who feel that they have been unjustly and unfairly dealt with will be apparent to Mr Stout on the next meeting of tho Assembly, when, if the obnoxious Act is not repealed, settlers may be driven to petition the English Crown to disallow an Act which is in direct contravention to the principle of Magna Charta. The present Minister of Lands is, I believe, a mere puppet in Mr Stout's hands, and it is the latter who iB responsible, I have not a doubt, for this gross interference with a judicial body. I look upon Mr Stout's advent to power with very serious apprehension, and what iB to become of the Colony when we have scared all our agricultural Battlers out of the country I really do not know.-r-I am, &c, J. AITKEN CONNELL,

January 15.