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A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

Enclosure in No. 28. — Agreement

Enclosure in No. 28.
Agreement.

The arrangements to be entered into between Her Majesty's Government and the Association who have been hitherto acting under the title of "The New Zealand Company," may be arranged under the following heads:—

I.The adjustment, retrospectively, of the claims which the Company has established to favourable consideration for themselves and for the emigrants whom they have sent to New Zealand.
II.The incorporation of the Company, with a view to future operations.
III.The powers which will be vested in the incorporated body, and the terms on which the Government will deal with them in regard to Crown lands in New Zealand.
I.First, then, with regard to the retrospective adjustment of the claims of the Company.
1.It being understood that the Company have invested large sums of money in the purchase of lands in New Zealand from the Native chiefs and others; in the taking up, chartering, and despatching ships for the conveyance of emigrants thither; in the maintenance of such emigrants before and during the outward voyage; in the purchase and transmission of stores for the public use of the settlers collectively on their arrival; in surveys; in the erection of buildings or the execution of other works dedicated exclusively to the public service of the settlement; and in other heads of expenditure or absolute liabilities unavoidably required or reasonably incurred for the before-mentioned purposes; it page 39 is agreed that an estimate be forthwith made of this outlay, under the different heads thus enumerated. In making that estimate, no item shall be admitted which shall not be found to have been just and moderate in amount, and fairly demanded by the exigencies of the service to be performed.
2.The above-mentioned estimate shall be made by one or more accountants, to be named by Lord John Russell, and to be paid by the Company. His Lordship would propose for this purpose Mr. James Pennington, who should be assisted by such clerks and copyists as he might have occasion to employ.
3.If necessary, Lord John Russell will also nominate an accountant to execute, on the same terms, the corresponding duty within the Colony itself, in reference to such parts of the above-mentioned expenditure as can be correctly ascertained and calculated there only.
4.When the amount of the above-mentioned expenditure shall have been ascertained, the Company shall be secured by a grant from the Crown to them, under the public seal of the Colony, of as many acres of land as shall be equal to four times the number of pounds sterling which they shall be found to have expended in the [gap — reason: damage]manner and for the purposes above-mentioned: such expenditure, so far as it may have been incurred in this country, to be calculated down to the date of the present agreement; and so far as it may have been incurred in the Colony, to be calculated down to the time of the receipt by the Governor of a copy of the agreement.
5.The lands so to be assigned to the Company shall be taken by them in that part of the Colony of New Zealand at which their settlement has been formed, and to which they have laid claim in virtue of contracts made by them with the Natives or others, antecedently to the arrival of Captain Hobson, as Her Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor at New Zealand. Within those local limits, the Company shall select the lands so to be granted to them. The selection is to be made within six months after the receipt by the Governor of a copy of this agreement.
6.The lands so to be selected by the Company, as last aforesaid, shall comprise all tracts to which any persons have derived title through them; provided that such tracts be situate at or in the neighbourhood of Port Nicholson, or at or in the neighbourhood of New Plymouth; and also provided that such tracts shall not collectively amount to more than 160,000 acres; and provided further that no such tracts shall be such as, regard being had to the general interests of the colonists at large, ought to be reserved and appropriated for any purposes of public utility, convenience, or recreation. With the exception of the before-mentioned tracts, the land to be selected by the Company as aforesaid shall be taken by them in one or more blocks. Of such blocks, any number not exceeding six may be of the size of not less than 5,000 acres each, and the rest of the size of not less than 30,000 acres each. Every such block shall be one continuous tract. Each block shall be bounded, as far as may be possible, by the natural landmarks of the country. As far as such natural landmarks may admit, each block shall be as nearly as possible a solid parallelogram, of which no one side shall be more than twice the length of any other side.
7.It is, however, to be distinctly understood, that if, previously to the receipt of a copy of this agreement by the Governor of New Zealand, any tracts of land to which any persons derive title through the Company should by the local Government have been lawfully entered upon and resumed on behalf of Her Majesty, and should have been lawfully granted or located to any other person or persons, nothing herein contained shall be construed as defeating the rights of any such new grantees or locatees, or as binding the Government to a specific restitution of such lands, or to make compensation to the persons so dispossessed for the loss of them.
8.The Government will complete the survey of the external lines of every block of land assigned to the Company, but will not effect the interior survey or subdivision of it. The Company will be allowed, in account with the Government, credit for the amount saved to the Government by leaving the interior survey of the before-mentioned blocks unmade. For the amount of the credit which may so accrue to the Company, they shall be entitled to demand from the Government payment in land at the price at which, at the time of making any such demand, the waste lands of the Crown shall be selling in New Zealand: Provided always, that the credit so to accrue to the Company for the amount saved to the Government as aforesaid, shall be estimated according to a general scale hereafter to be settled, in which scale the average price of the surveys of land shall be fixed and determined. That scale shall be drawn up by arbitrators, of whom two shall be chosen by the Government and two by the Company, the majority of whom shall have power to determine the average price of surveying for every 1,000 acres. If the four arbitrators should be equally divided in opinion as to what ought to be allowed for such average price, they shall appoint an umpire, whose decision on the question in dispute shall be final.
9.The lands thus to be granted to the Company are to be held by them subject to all such general laws and regulations as are, or at any time shall be, in force in New Zealand in reference to other lands granted to private persons there; and especially to all laws having for their object the opening of public roads, wharves, quays, or other such like works, and securing to the public at large free access to, and the free use of, all seaports, landing places, and navigable rivers.
10.All public works and buildings included in the above-mentioned estimate are to vest in, and become the property of, the Crown, in trust for the public uses of the Colony, should the Governor require them for such purpose.
11.The Company forego and disclaim all title, or pretence of title, to any lands purchased or acquired by them in New Zealand, other than the lands so to be granted to them as aforesaid, and other than any lands which may hereafter be purchased or acquired by them from the Crown, or from persons deriving their title from the Crown.
12.The Company having sold, or contracted to sell, lands to various persons, Her Majesty's Government disclaim all liability for making good any such sales or contracts; it being, nevertheless, understood that the Company will, from the lands so to be granted to them as aforesaid, fulfil and carry into effect all such their sales or contracts.
13.It being also understood that the Company have entered into engagements for the reservation of certain lands for the benefit of the Natives, it is agreed that, in respect of all the lands so to be page 40 granted to the Company as aforesaid reservations of such lands shall be made for the benefit of the Natives by Her Majesty's Government, in fuifilment of, and according to the tenor of, such stipulations; the Government reserving to themselves, in respect of all other lands, to make such arrange ments as to them shall seem just and expedient for the benefit of the Natives.
II.With regard to the incorporation of the Company.
1.Her Majesty will be advised to grant a charter of incorporation to the Company.
2.The charter will contain all such conditions as may appear to Her Majesty's Government to be necessary for the good government of the Company, and for the security of the public at large in dealing With them.
3.The charter will be granted for the term of forty years, and will contain provisions enabling the Crown within that term to resume the charter, and to purchase the lands and other property of the Company on just and equitable terms, if the public interest should require such a resumption and purchase.
4.The objects of the incorporation will be declared to be the purchase, sale, settlement, and cultivation of lands in New Zealand, and the advancement of money on the security of lands situate there, for promoting the cultivation of such lands.

As incidental to these main objects, the Company will be authorized to purchase and hire ships, and to engage with emigrants for their passage to the Colony; it being expressly stipulated that all such ships and emigrants shall be under the superintendence of, and approved by the Government or its officers in this country and in the Colony.

The capital will be fixed at [gap — reason: damage], with an express prohibition on the Company against their engaging in banking or any other commercial undertakings.

III.With regard to the powers of the Company, and the terms on which the Government will hereafter deal with them.
1.The Company may acquire by purchase, except from the Natives, any lands in New Zealand which they may think proper to buy.
2.If the Company shall at any one time purchase from the Government 50,000 acres of land, and pay for the same in ready money, a discount of[gap — reason: damage]percent, together with allowance for surveys, shall be allowed on every such payment.
3.All lands sold to the Company shall be so sold and taken by them subject to all the general rules, on the subject of surveys and otherwise; as shall be in force in regard to any other purchaser.
4.For the present, Her Majesty's Government engage that all sums of money which shall be paid by the Company for the purchase of land in New Zealand shall, whenever such money shall be paid in this country, be laid out in the removal of emigrants to New Zealand; it being left to the Government from time to time to determine whether such money shall be so laid out by the Commissioners of Colonial Lands and Emigration, or by the Company themselves, under the superintendence and with the concurrence and sanction of those Commissioners.

Finally, Lord John Russell will instruct the Governor of New Zealand to recommend to the local Legislature the enactment of a law having for its object to incorporate as a municipal body, with the usual powers, the settlers who have, at the charge of the Company, resorted to Port Nicholson, and settled themselves there or in that vicinity.