No. 6

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 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 will 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.