No. 6
Downing Street
20 January 1859
Sir,
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatches No 1 of the 12th and No 5 of the 23rd of October last—the first enclosing two Proclamations and a Notice which you had issued prohibiting the introduction of Spirituous liquors among the natives, and cautioning purchasers against fraudulent sales of Crown lands by unauthorised persons, and I have to convey to you my approval of the Notice and Proclamations in question.
With Manuscript image
With respect to the form of Grant enclosed in your second Despatch I have to observe that it runs in the name of the Governor and not in the name of the Queen as is usual in all Grants made in virtue of powers delegated by Her Majesty, and that the condition at the end of it that the lands shall be subject to all laws and sanitary regulations now in force is superfluous, and therefore perhaps calculated to raise a doubt on that point rather than to settle it.
I therefore transmit a form of Grant for your adoption which appears to me sufficient for all purposes. You willobserveManuscript image observe that all reservations of timber, minerals &c are omitted in conformity with the policy which has been established in other Colonies of late years, but this omission will not entitle a Grantee to appropriate Gold or Silver which may be found on his Grant, although it will entitle him to the baser metals and Coal.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
Your most obedient
Humble Servant
E B Lytton