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This refusal compels me to bring to your notice
the instructions to the Governor in the Charter of the Colony
wherein he is commanded to do and execute all things that
belong to his said office according to such laws as are
now in force in the Colony, and as the laws in force provide
for full and fair compensation when rights granted in a
Crown Lease have been taken away for a public purpose,
and as the Award of $24,367 does not cover the loss of
rents, no compensation for difference in value between
the Lot as a Marine Lot and when converted into an Inland
Lot by the reclamation in front of it has been made,
therefore, I submit that the Acting Governor has not only
disregarded his instructions, but violated the laws in
force in the Colony.
In order, however, to assist Mr. Secretary
Lyttelton to settle the matter at issue without further
reference, I would suggest that the proviso thought necessary by Her Late Majesty's Government in 1857, be adopted, namely:-" In no case should more be claimable as assessed damages than the amount realised by the sale
of the new Lot."
The sale of the new Lot, as you are aware,
realized $133,500.
Failing this assent it but remains for us to
test the question of "Ultra vires" of the Reclamation Ordinance, which according to a letter written by Charles
S. Murdoch on the 14th December 1901 under direction of
the Secretary of State, ought to have been raised in the local Courts, and may possibly now be raised if such a
step should be thought expedient.
We did not deem it expedient to raise the question