28290
MY LORD,
No. 40.
(TRANSVAAL AND Orange River (OLONY.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
[Draft despatch to the Governor respecting Land Settlement Funds.}
Royal Courts of Justice,
August 1, 1906. WE were honoured by your Lordship's commands signified to us by Mr. Graham in his letter of the 21st July last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to acknowledge the receipt of our opinion of 7th June* regarding the land settlement funds of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. That he was to enclosc the draft of a despatch on the subject to the Governor, and to enquire whether we concurred in its terms.
We have taken the matter into our consideration, and in obedience to your Lordship's commands have the honour to
Report
That we concur in the terms of the draft despatch as initialled by us.
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Elgin, K.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
We have, &c.,
JOHN L. WALTON W. S. ROBSON.
DRAFT DESPATCH to High Commissioner the EARL OF SELBORNE.
(Confidential.)
MY LORD,
Downing Street,
1906.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your confidential despatch, Transvaal, No. 2, of the 5th of February, enclosing correspondence respecting repay- ments by settlers of money issued to them from the Guaranteed Loan, including an opinion by Sir R. Solomon to the effect that once the capital sum allocated by the Inter-Colonial Council to either Colonial Government for purposes of land settlement has been spent "the purpose for which it was allocated is legally exhausted, and any repayments of moneys advanced out of that sum, or any revenue derived from an investment of that sum, whether by way of interest or by repayments of instal- ments by settlers of the purchase price of land allotted to them and bought out of that sum cannot be appropriated by the Government without a vote of the Legis- lature."
2. I have consulted the Law Officers of the Crown on this question, and I find that they are unable to agree in Sir R. Solomon's opinion. They advise me that the purposes of the Transvaal Guaranteed Loan Ordinance, 1903, so far as land settle- ment is concerned, are not fulfilled by the first issue of the funds advanced to settlers, and that they extend to the sums received in repayment; such sums are repayable to the Lieutenant-Governor, by whom they were originally allocated, and paid over to the Inter-Colonial Council. They must be devoted solely to the purpose of land settlement for which alone he received them.
3. The Transvaal Government, therefore, which obtained the funds in question by the help of an Imperial Guarantee and for a particular agreed purpose, is not at liberty to apply the repayments to any other purpose, not even to one mentioned in the Schedule other than that of land settlement. There is, however, nothing either in the Imperial Act or in the Ordinance to compel the Transvaal Government,
8 Wt 1619 0,06 D&S 5 26798
• No. 33.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PEPELE C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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