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

No. 22. — Extract from Instructions

No. 22.
Extract from Instructions.

Victoria. R.

Instructions to our trusty and well-beloved William Hobson, Esq., our Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over our Colony of New Zealand, or in his absence to our Lieutenant-Governor, or the Officer Administering the Government of the said Colony for the time being. Given at our Court at Buckingham Palace, the 5th day of December, 1840, in the fourth year of our Reign.

1.Whereas in pursuance and exercise of the powers in us vested, and by a certain Act of Parliament made and passed in this fourth year of our reign, intituled, &c.
21.And we do further direct that you do not propose or assent to any private Ordinance whatever, whereby the property of any individual may be affected, in which there is not a saving of the rights of us, our heirs and successors, and of all bodies politic and corporate, and of all other persons excepting those at whose instance or for whose especial benefit such Ordinance may be passed, and those claiming by, from, through, and under them.
37.And whereas by the said recited charter we have given and granted to the Governor of our said Colony of New Zealand for the time being, full power and authority, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of our said Colony (but subject nevertheless to such provisions as should be in that respect contained in any instructions which might from time to time be addressed to him in that behalf), by any Proclamation or Proclamations, to divide our said Colony into districts, counties, hundreds, towns, townships, and parishes, and to appoint the limits thereof respectively, and to make and execute in oar name and on our behalf, under the Public Seal of our said Colony, grants of waste land to us belonging within the same to private persons for their own use and benefit, or to any persons, bodies politic or corporate, in trust for the public uses of our subjects there resident, or any of them: Provided, nevertheless, that nothing in the said charter contained shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any aboriginal natives of the said Colony to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own persons, or in the persons of their descendants, of any lands in the said Colony then actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives. Now we do hereby authorize and require you to cause a survey to be made, in manner hereinafter mentioned, of all the lands within our said Colony; and you are for this purpose from time to time to issue instructions to the Surveyor-General for the time being of our said Colony, and to divide and apportion the whole of the said Colony into counties, each of which shall contain, as nearly as may be, 40 miles square, and to apportion each county into hundreds, of which each hundred shall, as nearly as may be, comprise an area of 100 square miles, and again to subdivide each hundred into parishes, of which each parish shall, as nearly as may be, comprise an area of 25 square miles; and you are to instruct the said Surveyor-General that in making the division aforesaid of our said Colony into counties, hundreds, and parishes, he do have regard to all such natural divisions thereof as may be formed by rivers, streams, highlands, or otherwise; and that whenever in order to obtain a clear and well-defined natural boundary of any county, hundred, or parish, it shall be lawful and necessary to include therein a greater or a smaller quantity of land than is hereinbefore mentioned, he the said Surveyor-General do make such deviations from the prescribed dimensions of such county, hundred, or parish as may be necessary for obtaining such natural boundary, provided that no such county, hundred, or parish shall in any case exceed or fall short of the dimensions before prescribed to the extent of more than one third part of such dimensions.
61.And it is our further will and pleasure that you do to the utmost of your power promote religion and education among the Native inhabitants of our said Colony, or of the lands and islands thereto adjoining, and that you do especially take care to protect them in their persons and in the free enjoyment of their possessions, and that you do by all lawful means prevent and restrain all violence and injustice which may in any manner be practised or attempted against them, and that you take such measures as may appear to you to be necessary for their conversion to the Christian faith, and for their advancement in civilization.