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Proclamation by Gipps restricting Land Sales in New Zealand [1840] NZConLRes 3 (14 January 1840)

Last Updated: 21 August 2017

Proclamation

By his Excellency Sir George Gipps, Knight, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty’s Territory of New South Wales and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c., &c.

WHEREAS Her Majesty has been pleased, by instructions under the hand of the most noble the Marquis of Normanby, one of Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, and bearing the date the fourteenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, to Command that is shall be announced to all Her Majesty’s subjects in New Zealand, that Her Majesty will not acknowledge as valid any title to land which either has been or shall be hereafter acquired in that country, which is not either derived from or confirmed by a grant to be made in Her Majesty’s name, and on Her behalf, but that care shall be taken at the same time to dispel any apprehension that it is intended to dispossess the owners of any land acquired on equitable conditions, and not in extent or otherwise prejudicial to the present or prospective interests of the community, to be investigated and reported on by Commissioners to be Appointed by Me, with such powers as may be conferred upon them by an Act of the Governor and Council of New South Wales: Now I, the Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief aforesaid, do hereby Proclaim and Declare such to be Her Majesty’s Commands, for the information and guidance of all parties interested; and I do further Proclaim and Declare that all purchases of land in any part of New Zealand which may be made by any of Her Majesty’s subjects from any of the Native Chiefs or Tribes of these Islands, after the date hereof will be considered as absolutely null and void, and neither confirmed nor in any way recognised by Her Majesty.

Given under my Hand and Seal, at Government House, Sydney, this fourteenth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty, and in the Third year of Her Majesty’s Reign.

GEORGE GIPPS,

Governor-in-Chief.

By His Excellency’s Command

E. DEAS THOMSON

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.