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12. With regard, therefore, to compensations in Wellington and in New Plymouth (if there are such) I apprehend that you will have no difficulty. With regard to Nelson, the case is different. Lord Grey transmitted to you by his despatch of January 10th last, copy of a Report from the Land and Emigration Commissioners, dated December 10th, 1851, from which you will have perceived that the Law Advisers of the Crown had reported that the resolutions adopted at Nelson, on July Ist, 1847, were binding on the Company, and, consequently, on the Crown. Her Majesty's Government have, therefore, no alternative but to regard them as still in force, and to consider the proprietors of land at Nelson who may be within the terms of those Resolutions as entitled to demand compensation in the particular manner which they authorize. No Provincial Ordinance can absolve the Local, or Her Majesty's Government, from the necessity of fulfilling Act of Parliament obligations. 13. Rut, on the other hand, if any Nelson proprietors, who may be within the terms of those Resolutions, have already accepted the compensation provided by your Ordinance, you may safely regard them as having waived that to which they were entitled under the Resolutions, and accepted the other in lieu of it; and their cases are concluded. 14. If, on the other hand, there are still outstanding Nelson claimants, it will be necessary to propose to them, as an alternative, either the compensation given by the Ordinance, or that given by the Resolutions. 15. I transmit, for your farther information, a copy of the opinion qf the late Law Advisers, now in question, as it does not appear to have accompanied my predecessor's despatch of January 10th. 16. With these observations I leave this matter for the present in the hands of yourself and the authorities of New Zealand. I cannot, however, do so without expressing my sense of the care and industry with which these subjects have been investigated in New Zealand, which I hope will enable you, with the powers with which you are now invested, to make a rapid progress towards the settlement of these embarrassing questions. If you should be enabled to complete it before the Constitution comes into force, you will probably spare the future Legislature much embarrassment, and it will take the land questions into its own hands comparatively free from the many difficulties which have unavoidably beset them during your administration. I have, &c., (Signed) John S. Pakington. Governor Sir George Grey, &c., &c., &c.
Temple, November 13th, 1851. My Lord, We are favored with your Lordship's commands contained in Mr. Elliott's letter of the 23rd of September last, in which he stated that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit tD us the accompanying case which had been drawn up by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners on points arising out of certain resolutions passed by the purchasers of land in the settlement of Nelson in New Zealand; and he was to request that we would favor your Lordship with our advice on the several questions raised therein. In obedience to your Lordship's command, we have considered the several documents transmitted to us, and have the honor to report— Ist. That as Colonel Wakefield had received plenary authority from the New Zealand Company to adopt the plan sent out by them for the adjustment of the differences between their purchasers and the Company, or to substitute any other, which, after consultation with the settlers he should deem more advisable, his assent to the scheme embodied in the resolutions of the Nelson purchasers, if in fact given, was binding on the Company, and that the operation of such assent was not affected by the circumstance of the previous reference by the purchasers, of the matter to the Directors at home, made by them when unaware of the authority of Colonel Wakefield to settle with them. It appears to us that the assent of Colonel Wakefield must be assumed for the present purpose to have been given, inasmuch as there is no evidence to contradict the statement
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