Sessional_Paper_1886-1887 — Page 475

xviii

REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION OF 1886-87.

In the year 1849 the tenure of the land of the Colony was again the subject of consideration, and a Committee, consisting of the then Colonial Treasurer, Surveyor General, Assistant Commissary General, and two Merchants, were appointed to report upon the landed tenure generally, and to represent individual cases in which the amount of rent paid seemed extravagant. Another subject · offered to the Committee at this time for its consideration and opinion was whether it would not.be for the interest of the Colony to reserve in all future Land Sales a portion only of the price in the form of rental, the competition being made to turn upon the premium offered.

In their joint letter of report dated 18th May, 1850, the Committee on this occasion represented the difficulty, which already then existed, of disposing of landed property in consequence of the inability of lessees to transfer a subdivision of their lots. In many cases several houses were, at that time, built upon one lot and it was considered convenient for the owner to dispose of a portion or portions of it which, under the prevailing system, he was unable to effect. The Committee then recommended that such sales and transfers be permitted and fresh titles granted by Government, stating that the restrictions then felt would thus be removed and an enhanced value be given to property in the Colony.

Upon this subject the then Governor Sir SAMUEL G. BONHAM took the opinion of Mr. STERLING, the Attorney General, whose opinion dated August, 1850, was as follows:-

"The Crown Lessee unless prohibited by his lease may make sub-leases; this being so, house property is similarly circumstanced here, as in all towns in England.

"If in any case the Crown be willing to adopt the under-tenant as its immediate lessee it can do so, (supposing there be no liens or encumbrances attaching to the head lease), in its own discretion, by accepting a surrender in writing of the head lease, and then granting two leases of the original lot as apportioned by the two tenants, but in doing so or in any other way interfering with the title created by the first lease, the danger will arise of interfering with the securities and remedies of unregistered encumbrances or creditors having or about to obtain executions."

(*

August, 1850."

(Signed), "PAUL STERLING.

In the remarks of Governor BONHAM upon this question to the Secretary of State (Despatch No. 85, Financial, of the 29th August, 1850), he states that, in his opinion, it would be well that parties should be allowed to dispose of portions of their properties, as recommended by the Committee; but thought the concession might be open to much abuse in cases where any party having a house erected on a large lot of ground might be desirous of getting rid of a part of the ground to a man of straw because it was useless to him, while the individual to whom it was sold having no property in the Colony might quit it leaving the Government without any means of enforcing its just claim.

In the Despatch of Earl GREY to Governor BONHAM of 2nd January, 1851, acknowledging the receipt of Governor BONHAM's Despach of the 29th of August preceding, Earl GREY communicated the conclusions at which he had arrived, after a careful consideration of the papers before him, and as regarded the system of selling Crown Lands to the highest bidder of an annual rent stated he was decidedly of opinion that, in future, biddings for Crown Lands should not be in the form of an advance of rent, but that any such property should be offered for lease at a moderate rent to be determined by the Crown Surveyor and that the competition should be in the amount to be paid down as a premium for the lease at the rent so reserved by parties desiring to obtain it.

And on the question of affording Crown Lessees the power of alienating portions of their lands Earl GREY stated his opinion to be that such a measure, if properly guarding against the inconvenien- ces suggested by Governor BONHAM, and the Attorney General, would be very desirable, and it was a subject which he was quite prepared to entrust to the discretion of the Local Government.

In the inclosures accompanying the last mentioned Committee's Report, many references are made to a Parliamentary China Blue Book of 1847 which would seem, from the references made to it, to have dealt exhaustively with the disposition of Crown Lands in this Colony, but the Commissioners regret that they have been unable to obtain a copy in the Colony as it might have afforded them some very valuable information.