WANGAPEKA LAND SALES

16

C—No. 1.

No. 18. Copy of Telegram from the Hon. W. Gisbokne to the Supemnteu'des't, Nelson. Wellington, December 10, 18G9. Goveenmext have considered your telegram of yesterday, with correspondence relative to opposed survey of land at Wangapeka. At present Government cannot form an opinion whether land in question is within or without a gold field ; if within gold field, miners having miner's rights have a legal right to the claims they have taken up, the sale being in that case invalid; if not within gold field, the miners have no such right. Mr. Domett will be requested to report to Government on the subject, and Government think that, until he has reported, matters should be left as they are. The survey should not bo proceeded with, and the land not proclaimed a gold field. Please inform Waste Lands Board and Mr. Broad to this effect, and give copies of correspondence, whether telegraphic or otherwise, to Mr. Domett. GISBORJN'E. His Honor the Superintendent, Nelson.

No. 19. Copy of Telegram from the Hon. W. Gisborne to the Secketaby for Ceown L.vnds, Nelson. Wellington, 10th December 1869. I annex copy of a telegram written by me this day to Superintendent of Nelson about opposed survey of land at Wangapeka. Obtain from Superintendent other correspondence on same subject. Government wish you to proceed at once to AVangapeka, and to inquire into and report to General Government on whole matter. In the meantime the survey should not be proceeded with, and the land not proclaimed a gold field. Inform Commissioner of Crown Lands accordingly. Use every effort to prevent breach of peace, and to induce all parties to have dispute quietly settled. Gisboene.

No. 20. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. W. Gisboene, to the Sttpebentehdent, Nelson. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sib,— Wellington, December 14, 1809. I have to acknowledge the receipt, on the 12th instant, of your Honor's letter, No. 69, of the 30th ultimo, in which you discuss and animadvert on the opinion, communicated to you in my letter of the 20th ultimo, of the Attorney-General, relative to the sale of auriferous land at Wangapeka. I do not think that it will tend to any useful result, to pursue a controversy between the AttorneyGeneral and yourself on points of law, and I have not, therefore, deemed it necessary to call on that officer to defend his opinions, and to vindicate his knowledge of his profession. I cannot, however, pass unnoticed your Honor's remark —given at the close of your letter, as a reason for your free expression of opinion on the minute of the Attorney-General—that you "think its general tenor is obvious])'" rather of a political than of a legal character." Such an imputation—preceded, I must add, by remarks not characterized by your usual courtesy —is unjust. The Attorney-General is the permanent Law Officer of the Crown, appointed apart from all political considerations, under the special sanction of the Legislature, lie has earned the confidence of successive Administrations, and I think that your Honor, on reconsideration, will admit that such a reflection on him is not warranted. Upon the actual merits of the question at issue, further discussion seems also unnecessary. A brief recapitulation of the main facts is, I think, sufficient to place the matter in a clear light, and to justify the action of the Colonial Government. On the morning of the 13lh October last (I quote in substance from the report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Nelson), the Provincial Secretary stated to the Commissioner that a gold miner had brought to the Provincial Secretary's Office specimens of gold-bearing quartz, said to have been taken from a reef at Wangapeka, and over part of which that miner desired to obtain a goldmining lease, or some other document which would at once protect his discovery. Instead of steps being at once taken to protect the public interest by the immediate withdrawal of the land from private sale as rural land, and by submitting it (as provided for by the Regulations) to public auction as auriferous land, or by proclaiming it as a gold field (a number of miners having already congregated there), or even by ascertaining, what was a doubtful point, whether it was not already within a gold field, a discussion actually seems to have taken place in the Land Office how to meet " the necessities " of the present " case," or, in other words, the wishes of an individual.. The applicant was referred to the thirty-fifth section (enabling purchase at once to be made) of the Lands Act, and he at first hesitated to avail himself of that section, but at last was induced to adopt that course. No steps were taken on that day to summon a Waste Lands Board to withdraw the land in the district from sale, and it was only at half-past cloven on the following morning that the Board met and tlio withdrawal was effected, In the meantime, a number of persons, several of whom were Government officers, applied for and purchased under the thirty-fifth section, laud adjoining the piece purchased by the first applicant. When these circumstances were brought to the notice of the Colonial Government, they took steps at once to protect the public interests by notifying that precious metals do not pass by a sale of the Crown lands containing them, and that it was their intention to cause the law in that particular to be enforced. Upon your Honor's urgent representation, that enforcement was waived in respect of the Wangapeka sales, but a general caution was given to those who administer the regulations for the disposal of Crown land, with a view to preventing the recurrence of such impolitic and perilous transactions. The next event is the most recent opposition by miners to the survey of the purchased land, in the belief that the land is included within a gold field, and the sales consequently invalid. Your