No. 22.
[Extract from New Zealand Gazette.]

Proclamation-by His Excellency Robert fitzroy, Esquire, Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of New Zealand, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c.

From this day, until otherwise ordered, I will consent, on behalf of Her Majesty-the Queen, to waive the right of pre-emption over certain limited portions of lands in New Zealand, on the following conditions:—

• 1. Application is to be made in writing to the Governor, through the Colonial Secretary, to waive the Crown's right of pre-emption over a certain number of acres of land at or immediately adjoining a place distinctly specified, such land being described as accurately as may be practicable. '
• 2. The Governor will give-or refuse his consent to waive the Crown's right of pre-emption to a certain person, or his assignee, as His Excellency may judge best for the public welfare, rather than for the private interest of the applicant. He will consider the nature of the locality; the state of the neighbouring and resident Natives; their abundance or deficiency of land; their disposition towards Europeans, and towards Her Majesty's Government; and he will consult with the Protector of Aborigines before consenting, in any case, to waive the right of pre-emption.
• 3. No Crown title will be given for any pa or Native burying-ground, or land about either, however desirous the owners may now be to part with them; and, as a general rule, the right of pre-emption will not be waived over any land required by the, aborigines for their present use, although they themselves may now be desirous that it should be alienated.
• 4. The Crown's right of pre-emption will not be waived over any of that land near Auckland which lies between the Tamaki Road and the sea to the northward.
• 5. Of all land purchased from the aborigines in consequence of the Crown's right of pre-emption being waived, one-tenth part of fair average value as to position and quality is to be conveyed by the purchaser to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, for public purposes, especially for the future benefit of the aborigines.
• 6. All transactions with the sellers, all risks attendant on misunderstandings, on sales made improperly, or on incomplete, purchases, must be undertaken by the buyers until their respective purchases have been allowed and confirmed by grants from the Crown.
• 7. As the Crown has no right of pre-emption over land already sold to any person not an aboriginal native of New Zealand, and whose claim is or may be acknowledged by a Commissioner of Land Claims, no grant will be issued to any otherthan the original claimant, or his representative, whose claims have been-or may be investigated by a Commissioner, and recommended by him to the Governor for a grant from the Crown.
• 8. As a contribution to the Land Fund, and for the general purposes of Government, fees will be demanded in ready money at the rate of 4s. per acre for nine-tenths of the aggregate quantity of land over which it may be requested that the Crown's right of pre-emption may be waived. These fees will be payable into the Treasury on receiving the Governor's consent to waive the right, of pre-emption. And on the issue of a Crown grant after an interval of at least twelve months from the time of paying the above-mentioned fees, additional payments will be required at the rate of 6s. per acre, in 'ready money, to be applied to the Land Fund, and for the general purposes of Government.
• 9. Land so obtained is to be surveyed at the expense of the purchaser by a competent surveyor, licensed or otherwise approved of by Government, who will be required to declare to the accuracy of his work, to the best of his belief, and to deposit certified copies of the same at the Surveyor-General's Office previous to the preparation of a Crown grant.page 33
• 10. Copies of the deed or deeds conveying such lands are to be lodged at the Surveyor-General's Office as soon as practicable, in order that the necessary inquiries may be made;and notice given in the Maeri as well as in the English Gazette that a Grown title will be issued, unless sufficient cause should be shown for its being withheld for a time, or altogether refused.
• 11. 'The Government, on behalf of the Grown and the public, will reserve the right of making and constructing roads and bridges for public purposes through or in lands so granted, the owners being fairly compensated by other equivalent land as settled by arbitration.
• 12. No Crown grants will be issued under the foregoing arrangements to any person or persons who may be found to have contravened any of these regulations; and the public are reminded that no' title to land in this colony, held or claimed by any person not an aboriginal native of the same, is valid in the eye of the law, or otherwise than null and void, unless confirmed by a grant from the Crown.

Given under my hand, and issued under, the Public Seal of the Colony at Government House, Auckland, this twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand 'eight hundred and forty-four.