(8-
8⋅ ).
No. 1.
No. 2.
Combined Court may make rules.
Public Seal.
Grants of Land.
Governor
XIV. Subject to the provisions of this Order in Council, and of any other law which may for the time being be in force in the said island, the Combined Court may from time to time, by such majority as aforesaid, make rules for the regulation of their own proceedings.
XV. The Governor may keep and use the Public Seal appointed for the sealing of all things whatsoever that shall pass the seal of the said island.
XVI. The Governor may make and execute in Her Majesty's name and on her behalf, under the said Public Seal, grants and dispositions of any lands which may be lawfully granted or disposed of by her within the said island.
XVII. The Governor may constitute and appoint judges, justices of the peace, and may appoint other necessary officers and ministers in the said island, all of whom shall hold their judges and
offices during Her Majesty's pleasure. other officers.
Governor
ter oaths;
XVIII. The Governor may, as occasion may require, administer or cause to be ad- may adminis- ministered to any such officer as aforesaid, or other person within the said island, the oath commonly called the Oath of Allegiance, and such other oaths as by law or custom are usually taken for the due execution of offices or places, and for the clearing of truth in judicial matters.
may grant
pardons and respite of
sentances;
may remit
fines and forfeitures not exceed- ing 501.¡
may suspend biicers.
Executive Council.
No. 6.
XIX. The Governor may, as he shall see occasion, in Her Majesty's name and on her behalf, grant to any offender convicted of any crime in any court, or before any judge, justice, or magistrate within the said island, a free and unconditional pardon, or a pardon subject to such conditions as may at any time be lawfully thereunto annexed, or any respite of the execution of the sentence of any such offender for such period as to him may seem fit.
XX. The Governor may, as he shall see occasion, in Her Majesty's name and on her behalf, remit any fines, penalties, or forfeitures which may accrue or become payable to her, provided the same do not exceed the sum of fifty pounds sterling in any one case, and may suspend the payment of any such fine, penalty, or forfeiture exceeding the said sum of fifty pounds, until Her Majesty's pleasure thereon shall be made known and signified to him.
XXI. The Governor may, upou sufficient cause to him appearing, suspend from the exercise of his office within the said island any Legislative Councillor or other person exercising the same under or by virtue of any commission or warrant granted, or which may be granted by Her Majesty or in her name, or under her authority, which suspension shall continue and have effect only until Her Majesty's pleasure therein shall be made known and signified to the said Governor. And in proceeding to any such suspension, he is to observe the directions in that behalf given to him by any such instructions under Her Majesty's Sign Manual and Signet as may be hereafter addressed to him,
XXII. There shall be in the said island, for the purpose of advising the Governor thereof, an Executive Council, which shall be composed of such persons or officers as may from time to time be named or designated, and shall observe such rules in the con- duct of business as may from time to time be directed or appointed by, or under authority of, any instructions addressed to him or them under Her Majesty's Sign Manual and Signet.
Pro- Buy XXIII, This Order in Council shall take effect on a day to be named in clamation to be issued in the Island of Heligoland by authority of the Governor thereof, and shall remain in force for five years from the date of such Proclamation unless the same shall be sooner revoked or altered by Her Majesty with the advice of her Privy Council.
No. 3.
GOVERNOR LIEUTENANT-COLONEL MAXSE, C,M.G., to The EARL OF
SIR,
CARNARVON.
(Received July 19th, 1866.) Heligoland, 14th July 1866.
1. With reference to the telegram with which I was honored by the Earl of Carnarvon on the 7th inst., I beg now to enclose the minutes of the proceedings of a Committee of the Executive Council.
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2. With regard to a memorial returned to me in due course from the Secretary of State for translation and report, which memorial purports to be signed in a bond fide manner by 350 of the inhabitants of this Island, I have to state that the signatures have been mainly obtained under false pretentces and also by threats; moreover, a great many signatures are written in one handwriting.
3. In a colony possessing only 298 electors a petition signed in a bond fide manner by 350 of the inhabitants, containing such statements as notified in the enclosed paper, a very serious matter.
is
4. Under these circumstances it naturally became my duty in defence of the constituted authorities against whom such sweeping complaints had been made to discover how far the signatures were genuine, and whether the subscribers were acquainted with the chief points of the documents to which they had attached their signatures.
5. It was the more necessary for me to pursue this course, as the majority of the persons who composed the so-called committee have been mixed up with this sort of proceeding on previous occasions, some directly some indirectly.
6. I enclose, with reference to this point, a copy of an inquiry instituted in 1857, with regard to a memorial on the subject of ecclesiastical and school affairs.
7. The signatures to the above-named memorial were stated by the persons who for- warded the same to amount to 400, exceeding therefore by 50 the amount stated to be attached to the present paper.
8. The method by which the signatures were then obtained are analogous to the present case, and I make allusion to the proceedings in 1857 in order to prove that there are certain persons in Heligoland who, whatever the form of Government, whatever the measure proposed, are always ready to abuse the credulity of their simpler compatriots, and agitate against the authorities.
9.
enclose a copy of the judgment of the court in the above case, and beg to draw your particular attention to the fact four of the members of the then committee, and to whom punishment was awarded on the arrival of the gunboat " Spanker," are now members of the present so-called Bürger Committee.
10. In reference to the state of the island at that period and the crying necessity for a change, I beg to draw your attention to the despatch of the Secretary of State to Lieutenant-Governor Pattinson, of the 20th of April 1859,† on the subject of a deputation consisting of two Rathsleute sent by the Governor and authorities to England.
11. One of the members of the above-named deputation, Mr. J. Stoldt, alluded to in my despatch of the 7th July 1866,† who then a Rathsmann was fully aware of the disorderly state of the island and anxious to obtain forcible assistance towards carrying out the law.
12. With regard to Mr. Stoldt, I beg to enclose an extract from a memorial forwarded so far back as 1846, signed by Mr. Stoldt, previous to his appointment as Rathamann, and his friends begging for almost exactly what has been granted them by Her Majesty's Order in Council of 1864,
13. Since the above period, viz., 1846, there have been nothing but complaints, nothing but disorder, debt, and dissatisfaction, and to remedy this His Grace, the late Duke of Newcastle, was pleased to approve of certain constitutional changes which were therefore embodied in an order in Council in 1864.
14. I may here remark that had no taxation been introduced, and no direct legislation on the subject of wrecks, salvage, pilotage, and schools, there would have been no memorial got up, or at all events few signatures obtained.
15. It appears that the question put by the so-called Bürger Committee to those persons whose signatures they wished to obtain was simply as follows:
Will you have your old Constitution and no taxes, or the new Constitution and taxation ?
16. The answer was pretty certain, coming from persons who never have been taxed, and who individually, for I have talked over the matter with, I may say, fifties of them again and again,-I repeat, who individually refuse to see why the gambling tables must be abolished, and to comprehend that the permission to retain them till the contract is at an end is final, and that the period till that moment arrives must be made use of to diminish the national debt to such an extent that the island will be enabled to pay its way without the nefarious assistance which has supported it so long.
17. The so-called Bürger Committee and their immediate supporters have for some time been in the habit of openly stating everywhere that they had sent a petition to England which would entail the dismissal of the Governor and every one of the officials
† Not printed.
• A translation is printed as No. 6 in series.
39491.
B
No. 3.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON