323
Sir,
March 5th 1887.
I have to acknowledge receipt of your Letter No. 301, of the 14th instant and regret to learn from it that His Excellency the Administrator considers it unnecessary to furnish any explanation in reference to Marine Lot Number 184.
His Excellency would therefore apparently leave me in the position of not being able to sell that which I have bought.
I had hoped that His Excellency with the facts before him of one person holding land to which he has no title, and pays no Crown Rent, while another person, myself, has purchased it, paid the premium, and pays the Crown Rent for it, would have come to the conclusion that this is a wrong state of matters, and must be put right, and as I have fought the battle for the Crown, my Lessor, as far as it was possible for me to fight it, that some consideration would be shown to me, and a means devised of rectifying the present intolerable position.
If I am not entitled to compensation from the Government for the reason I asked in my last letter, then the Government, not having been a party to the previous action, I consider, would be in a position to have called upon the persons claiming possession under the Decree of the Court to prove their title as against the Crown, or suffer ejectment if they could not do so.
Seeing, however, that His Excellency the Administrator refuses to interfere, I have no alternative but to bring the matter before Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies for his directions, trusting thereby to save the necessity of further judicial proceedings.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
(Signed) A. McH. S. D. Hepburn
The Honorable
Frederick Stewart, LL.D.
Acting Colonial Secretary.