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SOUTHLAND. Claims recommended. Entitled to Entitled to Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. or Laud Name, Regiment or Corps, and Rank. or jjand. £ Acres. £ Acres. Batson, H. T., Invercargill Garrison Band, 30 .. Galbraith, R., Invercargill Garrison Band, 30 bandsman sergeant Booth, J. C, Invercargill Rifles, sergeant .. 30 .. Jones, Richard William, Invercargill Garri- 30 Boyne, W., M Battery, N.Z.R.A., sergeant.. 30 .. son Band, bandsman Brackenridge, J., G Battery, N.Z.R.A., ser- 30 .. Kingsland,C.W., Invercargill Garrisonßand, 30 .. geant-major sergeant Clare, J. G., G Battery, N.Z.A., corporal .. 30 .. Lillicrap, Herbert V., Bth (King's Royal) .. 400 Ferguson, J., Invercargill Garrison Band, 30 .. Regiment, lieutenant bandsman

Crown Lands Office, Invercargill, 25th June, 1890. Be Mr. H. V. Lillicrap's claim under " The Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act, 1889," and your memorandum No. 90/820, of the 7th May, 1890 :— I was clearly under the impression that the Act in question was brought in to meet such cases as those of Mr. Lillicrap and others, the preamble to the Act evidently implying that mere legal or technical objections would be waived, provided claimants could show that they were equitably entitled to a grant of land, and had not got their claim satisfied. Mr. Lillicrap, I was aware, had petitioned the Legislature several times in regard to his claim, and the letters he submitted to me from several colonial statesmen gave me the distinct impression that an Act would be passed to meet such cases as his and others, which Act I now understand to be "The Naval and Military Settlers' and Volunteers' Land Act, 1889." Mr. Lillicrap, I may remind you, based his claim on " The Auckland Waste Lands Act, 1858." Under that Act a grant of 400 acres of land was awarded to him, he having proved to the then existing authorities that he was a retired military officer, having served a certain number of years in Her Majesty's service, and had retired for the purpose of settling in New Zealand. Evidently the grant of land would not have been made to him had he not been able to substantiate his claim. The grant, however, though made, was subject to certain residence conditions within the Auckland Province, which residence conditions, owing to want of employment and slender means, he was unable to comply with. It will thus be seen that he was equitably entitled to a grant of land, and I was under the impression that, if the preamble to the Act of 1889 meant anything, it meant, that technical objections to claims such as Mr. Lillicrap's would be waived, and, provided the claimants could show that they had been entitled to a grant of land, and had not had that claim satisfied, they would be entitled to take advantage of the Act of 1889. In other words, I was under the impression that the Act of 1889 would sweep away the merely formal objections to the claim, and that the claimants would be restored to their original position as claimants uuder the Auckland Waste Lands Act of 1858, and similar Acts. No doubt Mr. Lillicrap has been petitioning the Legislature for some years back, but the letters produced by him go to show that the equity of his claim was recognised, the only barrier being the strict law of the matter, which barrier has now been removed by the Act of 1889. If a claim such as Mr. Lillicrap's be not recognised, then it would be a difficult matter to know where to draw the line. Of course, should the Government decide adversely to the claim, it will become my duty, on being communicated with, to inform the claimant accordingly. J. Skence, The Under-Secretary, Crown Lands, Wellington. Commissioner of Crown Lands. [Approximate Cost of Paper.— Preparation, nil; printing (1,200 copies), £4165.]

Authority ; Geoeqe Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB9o.