Colonial Secretary Guide - Flipbook - Page 332
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28.
Copies of letters to the Commissioners for Compensation, 10 July - 19 December 1834
1 vol (part)
The Act 4 Will. IV. no.11 (Governor in Council) was an Act to improve the roads of the Colony,
and this involved running roads through private land. The question of compensation therefore
arose. Section 1 provided that the proposed roads should be gazetted and that anyone with
grounds for complaint should submit his reasons to the Secretary of the Executive Council.
Section VI stated that once the roads had been determined, anyone who felt aggrieved (ie. owners
or occupiers) should serve notice on the Colonial Secretary for compensation. Section VII
describes the duties of the Commissioners for Assessing Compensation, and their mode of
appointment.
On receiving a claim the Governor could appoint five or less Commissioners, and they, or any
two of them, could convene a court at the nearest courthouse, call the claimant before them and
require him to produce a 50 pound bond for costs if the case should go against him. This bond
was sent to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. The Commissioners were empowered to issue a
warrant on the Chief Constable of the district to produce a jury. There was the right of
challenging the jury and the Commissioners could call any witnesses they liked or take the jury to
view any relevant land. The jury was to assess the damages and the Commissioners recorded the
verdict and the proceedings as well as the court costs involved. This record was sent to the
Supreme Court.
These are letters to such Commissioners, mainly appointing them, but also on other related
matters.
29.
Indexes:
In front of volume
Location:
4/6188 pp.400-07; microfilm copy AO Reel 2996
Copies of letters sent: Confidential, 22 December 1830 - 3 November 1842
1 vol
This volume includes instructions and circulars of a confidential nature; letters on disciplinary
matters such as a long reproof to Thomas Mitchell for his "neglect of duty and disobedience of
orders"; correspondence about irregularities in the sale of town allotments at Port Phillip in 1840;
a letter to Captain Sulivan dated 3 November 1842 about occurrences at Tahiti; and instructions in
1834 to police magistrates requiring them to furnish confidential reports on crime, police, convicts
and any other matters in their district which it might be useful for the government to know about.
There is also a letter dated 15 March 1836 concerning the Governor's decision to supply seed
wheat, as an emergency measure, to the Windsor farmers against their notes of hand to repay at
cost price, a policy which was also followed by Gipps in 1839, together with other
correspondence on the supply of wheat in the latter year of the drought. There are also various
letters to Captain Maconochie about his private "pecuniary transactions" and some to Latrobe in
Port Phillip including one of 17 December 1842 refusing Mr Justice Willis's request to allow an
information ex officio to be filed for alleged libels on him and containing the Governor's terse
suggestion that the judge "refrain from such harangues as he is in the habit of delivering from the
bench".
Indexes:
None located
Location:
4/3664; microfilm copy AO Reel 2997
