Page image

5

The Summary of all these Debts is as follows, viz.:— Debenture Debt .. .. .. £32174 15 ll New South Wales Debt .. . 37620 4 2 Immigration Debt .. 15827 9 0 Cape of Good Hope Debt .. • • 2580 0 0 Post Office Debt .. ... .. 1248 8 2 Pensioners Debt . •• /2996 15 10 To Commissariat chest on account of the New Zealand Company ... .. 7620 9 8 £170,068 2 9 Zand Scrip. With respect to the issue of Land Scrip, which by its operation constitutes a primary charge on the land revenue of the colony, your Committee are wholly unable to present to you any accurate statement of the amount issued or outstanding, or on what account or on what authority. They can only refer to the evidence taken upon this subject, and to a statement prepared by the Auditor General, showing what amount is now outstanding in Auckland. The evidence and the statement will be provided in an appendix. It is certain that Land Scrip has been issued by the Government in a very loose and irregular manner. The Committee would recommend that an address should be presented to his Excellency the Governor asking him to direct that a full report upon the subject should be laid before the House, showing the names of the parties in whose favor the Scrip was originally issued; the date and amount with references to the Land Commissioner's reports under which the Scrip was issued, and the names of the parties who have selecled under such issues, and the names of parties who still make claims. Jas. Kelham, Chairman.

APPENDIX. Extract of Letter from, Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, dated 18th Jan., 1851, to W. Fox, Esq., J.P., Wellington, The opinion of the Crown Lawyers in England was about to be taken whether such amount as should be paid to Mr. Scott, should be defrayed by the Government or the Company. I am now however to inform you that the Local Government would be prepared to agree to the sum proposed to be paid by you to Mr. Scott, being ultimately defrayed out of the Land Fund of the Province, interest thereon being paid from the same fund, until the discharge of the principal at the rate of 8 per cent per annum; subject however to this condition, that if the Crown Lawyers give it as their opinion that the Company and not the Crown ought to pay all compensation and charges connected with Scott,s case, that then such amount and the interest thereon as it is now proposed to charge upon the land fund, should be deducted from the sum which under the Act of Parliament above alluded to, is to be paid to the Company, out of the proceeds of future land sales in this Province. I am therefore in conclusion to acquaint you that if you will assent to such arrangement on behalf of the Company, the Government will proceed with the negociations, with the sole view of attempting to relieve the present occupants of the land from the unfortunate position in which they are placed. I have, &c., &c., A. Domett, Colonial Secretary, W. Fox, Esq., J. P., &c., &C-, Wellington,

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert