100000

A

B I L L

To authorize a Loan from the Consolidated Fund to the

New Zealand Company.

[Note.—The Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted

in the Committee.]

W by :

HEREAS Majesty, Her Royal Letters Patent, Preamble:

bearing date at Buckingham Palace, the Twelfth day of February in the year One thousand eight hundred and Forty-one, did grant and ordain that certain persons therein named and described

should be and constitute a body corporate, with perpetual succession 5

and a common seal, by the name of the “ New Zealand Company,” for the purpose of purchasing and acquiring, settling, improving, cultivating, letting, selling, granting, alienating, mortgaging, charging or

otherwise dealing with and making a profit of lands, tenements and 10 hereditaments, within Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its

Dependencies, and of laying out settlements and towns, and of working therein all mines, pits and quarries, and all minerals and metals, and for the further purpose of conveying or contracting for the con

veyance of emigrants to the said Colony and its Dependencies, and of 15 furnishing to emigrants all things requisite for their immediate settle

ment in the said Colony :

And whereas by the said Letters Patent, and also by additional Letters Patent bearing date at Buckingham Palace the Fourth day

of August in the year One thousand eight hundred and Forty20 three, the Court of Directors of the said Company was empowered

from time to time, with the consent of a Court of Proprietors specially convened for that purpose, to borrow and take up at any lawful rate of interest any sum or sums of money not exceeding in the whole Five hundred thousand Pounds, upon the security and credit of any portion of the subscribed capital of the said Company for the time being not at that time called up, and of the profits of the under

taking, and of the lands, tenements, hereditaments and other property for the time being of the said Company, or any or either of such securities, or any part thereof:

5

And whereas many of Her Majesty's subjects have already emigrated to New Zealand at the instance of the said Campany, and have expended much of their own capital in forming settleinents, in full reliance on the continuance of the Company's operations :

10

And whereas the Court of Directors of the saię Company, in pursuance of the powers granted to them in and by the said Letters Patent, have borrowed the sum of Seventy-five thousand Pounds on the security and credit of that portion of the subscribed capital of the said Company which was not at that time called up, amounting in the whole to One hundred thousand Pounds, and for securing repayment of the said loan, with lawful interest thereon, have granted, executed and issued debentures under the seal of the said Company, 15 amounting in the whole to the said sum of Seventy-five thousand pounds, and bearing interest after the rate of Four Pounds Two Shillings in the hundred by the year :

And whereas it is expedient, in order to prevent the discontinuance of the operations of the said Company, and for promoting the well- 20 being of the said settlers, and the future prosperity of the said Colony, that further aid should be afforded to the said Company for the fulfilment of its pecuniary engagements ;

1.

Pounds may

Be it Enacted, by The QUEEN's most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual 25 and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,

and by the Authority of the same, THAT it shall be lawful for the One hundred Lord High Treasurer, or any Three or more Commissioners of Her thousand

Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and IreNew Zealand land, from time to time to advance and lend to the New Zealand

30 Company. Company out of the growing produce of the Consolidated Fund of the

said United Kingdoin, free of all fees and deductions, any sum or sums
of money not exceeding in the whole the sum of One hundred thou-
sand Pounds, to be applied by the said Company, in the following
proportions, in making good the expenses already incurred or here- 35
after to be incurred for the following purposes; (that is to say, any sum
not exceeding Eight thousand Pounds toward discharging outstanding
claims on the said Company in New Zealand and in the said United
Kingdom ; a further sum not exceeding Twenty-five thousand Pounds
toward placing and carrying on the establishments of the Company 40
in a state of efficiency, and toward contingencies; and a further sum
not exceeding Sixty-seven thousand Pounds toward the purchase of
land in New Zealand, and for satisfying the claims of the native inha-

2.

Seven Years.

bitants thereto; also toward payment of the surveyors and others employed in surveying land in New Zealand, and all other expenses of such survey, and toward defraying the expenses of establishing

settlements of colonists at Otago and Wairarapo: Provided always, 5. That no part of the said sums shall be applied to the payment of

any principal sum of money for which any debenture has been or shall be issued under the seal of the said Company.

And be it Enacted, That the said advances and loans, not exceeding Security for in the whole One hundred thousand Pounds, shall be granted and of Loan in 10 made at such times and in such proportions, and subject to such con

ditions and undertakings for ensuring the due application and apportionment thereof to the several purposes before mentioned, as the said Lord High Treasurer or Commissioners of the Treasury shall think

fit; and the repayment within Seven Years after the passing of this 15 Act, of all sums of money so to be lent under the provisions thereof,

with interest on the same after the rate of Three Pounds in the Hundred Pounds by the year, to be computed in each case from the time when each separate sum shall be so lent, shall be secured upon the security

and credit of the profits of the undertaking, and upon the security 20 and credit of the lands, tenements and hereditaments in New Zealand

now belonging to or hereafter to be acquired by the said Company, by a deed or deeds of assignment and mortgage of the same under their common seal to such persons, in such manner, and under such

conditions and regulations as the said Lord High Treasurer or Com25 missioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall order.

And be it Enacted, That notwithstanding such deed or deeds of assignment and mortgage as aforesaid, or any thing in this Act contained, it shall be lawful for the said Company, with the consent in writing of

any person authorized in that behalf, by writing under the hand or hands 30

of the Lord High Treasurer or any Three or more Commissioners of
Her Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland for the time being, enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery in England, and whose authority shall not have been revoked

by a similar writing so enrolled (full power being hereby given to the 35 said Lord High Treasurer, and also to any Three or more of the said

Commissioners for the time being, at any time and from time to time to authorize any person or persons in that behalf, and to revoke any such authorization at pleasure), to hold, enjoy, sell, dispose of, receive, take

and deal with the lands, tenements and hereditaments now belonging 40 to or hereafter to be acquired by the said Company, and the issues

and profits thereof, in like manner in all respects, both at law and in equity, as if such deed or deeds of assignment and mortgage had not been made, and this Act had not been passed, until default shall be made in payment by the said Company, in such manner as may be expressed in any such deed of assignment or mort

rents, if

that inay

10)

gage in or towards satisfaction of the monies there by secured, until the
whole be discharged of one-half of the purchase-money from time to
time paid to the said Company for or in respect of any of the
lands, tenements and hereditaments of the said Company that shall
be sold by the said Company, subsequently to the execution of such 5
deed of assignment and mortgage, after deducting from the money
so paid to the said Company all money that on any such sale may
have been agreed to be expended by the said Company for emigration
or public or general purposes, and also of One-half of the net
any,

have been reserved to the said Company on
any such sale in respect of the lands, tenements and hereditaments
so sold as aforesaid, and of the rents reserved or fixed on any other
lands, tenements and hereditaments of the said Company that may be
demised or may be agreed to be demised by the said Company, sub-
sequently to the execution of such deed of assignment and mortgage, 15
and which respectively shall have been received by the said Company,
or until default shall be made in the repayment by the said Company
of the principal money secured by any such deed of assignment and
mortgage at or before the expiration of Seven Years from the
passing of this Act, with interest thereon after the rate aforesaid, 20
and that no purchaser from or lessee or tenant of a person in any
manner dealing with the said Company, for or in respect to or on
account of the lands, tenements and hereditaments now belonging
to or hereafter to be acquired by the said Company or any of them,
or the rents, issues and profits thereof, or any of them, with such 25
consent as aforesaid, prior to the expiration of the said Seven Years,
shall be affected by any such default as aforesaid, notwithstanding the
same may have been actually made, and he or she may have notice
thereof.

4.

And be it Enacted, That all money to be secured by any such 30 deed or deeds of assignment and mortgage as aforesaid that shall be paid by the said Company, their successors or assigns, shall be carried to the credit of the Consolidated Fund, and shall go in discharge of the principal money so secured and the interest thereof; nevertheless every receipt that shall be given by the persons to whom any such 35 assignment and mortgage shall be made as aforesaid, or the survivors or survivor of them, his executors or administrators, or their or his assigns, or any person for the time being authorized to consent to dispositions and dealings by the said Company as aforesaid, or their or his agent or agents, for any money to be secured by any such assign- 40 ment and mortgage, shall exonerate the said Company, their successors and assigns, from all liability with respect to the application thereof.

5. Act may be amended, &c.

And be it Enacted, That this Act may be amended or repealed by any Act to be passed in this Session of Parliament.