CO885-(13-15) — Page 289

2

against such regulations shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.

4. Any person inciting or aiding-any-of the-prisoners to aiding and abetting and any person conniving at or negligently permitting the escape or attempt to escape from of any such prisoner from the Colony shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any period not exceeding three months, or both.

5. No writ of habeas corpus or other process calling into question the legality of or other matter connected with the bringing to the Colony, or with the reception or detention of the prisoners, shall have any force or effect in the Colony of Fiji.

6. This Ordinance may be cited as "The Detention of Prisoners Ordinance.”

Passed in Council, &c.

R. E. W. E. C.

16567.

PUBLIC RECORD, OFFICE

Reference :-

TIILTIC.O. 8

885

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

No. 17.

(FALKLAND ISLANDS.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

?

Royal Courts of Justice, MY LORD,

August 16, 1892. We were honoured with your Lordship's commande signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 7th ultimo stating that, with reference to our report of the 27th of February last on certain questions respecting the rights of the Government of the Falkland Islands in relation to certain lessees and purchasers of Crown lands in that Colony, he was directed by your Lordship to lay before us a copy of a despatch which you addressed to the Governor of the Colony after receiving our Reports and copies of two No. 25., despatches from the Governor (with their enclosures) in which he advanced further 1March 1898. arguments in favour of the claim of the Colonial Government to resume the land occu- is April 1892. pied by the lessees in excess of the quantities stated in the leases, and submitted certain questions as to land comprised in a lease and reserved for sale on the expiration of the 8 May 1892. lease.

No. 54.,

No. 66.,

That Mr. Wingfield was also to enclose, for reference if required, copies of the leases Ordinance 4 of now existing or recently expired, and copies of the Ordinances noted in the margin, 1871. and a copy of the official chart of the Colony.

Ordinance i of

1872.

1879,

That the Governor pointed out that in some of the leases the clause prescribed by Ordinance i of section 12 of the Ordinance No. 4 of 1871, providing for the reference to arbitration Ordinance of of disputes as to boundaries, had been omitted, and suggested that that omission invali- 188 dated the leases, but that your Lordship apprehended that that contention could not 1890. be maintained.

That Mr. Wingfield was to point out that in some of the leases, viz., those of stations Nos. 19, 20, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, and 53 in East Falkland the acreage was not stated, but that all those leases, except that of atation No. 20, were granted in pursuance of Ordi- nance No. 1 of 1879 and that the acreage of the several stations was stated in the Schedule to that Ordinance.

That in paragraph 12 of his despatch of the 13th of April, the Governor stated that in the cases of the leases of stations Nos. 44, 46, 67, and others, the boundaries shown on the official chart were more extensive than those stated in the leases, and that that the question arose whether the former or the latter should be accepted as the true upon boundaries.

That your Lordship did not think it necessary to trouble us with reference to the particular leases referred to in paragraphs 13 and 14 of the Governor's despatch of the 13th of April.

That with reference to the first question asked by the Governor in paragraph 11 of his despatch of the 13th of April, Mr. Wingfield was to state that it appeared to your Lordship that section 3 of Ordinance 9 of 1890 merely empowered the Governor, with the sanction of the Secretary of State, to sell to a lessee the whole of the land comprised in his lease at the price of 33. per acre, but did not confer any right on the lessees.

That with respect to the Governor's second question, Mr. Wingfield was to submit that any land comprised in an expired lease which the Governor in Council might deem it expedient to sell whether such land were a section or part of a section-must be put up for sale by auction in accordance with section 6 of the Ordinance 4 of 1871–— the size of the lots being fixed by the Governor with the advice of the Executive Council, and that, though a survey was not expressly prescribed by the Ordinance, the land should be surveyed for the purpose of being divided into lots.

That with respect to the third and fourth questions the contingency supposed in the third question did not appear to be expressly provided for by Ordinance 9 of 1882, but that there appeared to be nothing in that Ordinance to preclude the Government from dealing with the land, if not sold when put up to auction, in the manner provided by section of the Ordinance 4 of 1871.

Ordinance 9 of

Chart.