WHEREAS by “The Waste Lands Act 1858” it was amongst other things enacted that every naval and military officer whether on full or half pay and every non-commissioned officer and private marine and seaman whether belonging to Her Majesty’s service or to the service of the East India Company who might retire or obtain his discharge from the service to which he might belong or who having retired or obtained his discharge for the purpose of settling in the Province of New Plymouth or Wellington had not selected land under any former law or regulation enabling Naval and Military Settlers to select land free of cost should be entitled to land free of cost in the said Provinces respectively in like manner and upon the same terms and conditions as Naval and Military Settlers were entitled to land free of cost under “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” And whereas by “The Hawke’s Bay Naval and Military Settlers Act 1861” it was enacted that the said provisions should relate to and include the Province of Hawke’s Bay And whereas by the said provisions it is enacted that every land order issued under the said provisions shall be to the same purport and shall have the same effect and shall entitle the person in whose favour the same is granted to the same rights and privileges as a land order granted by an agent in England to a person emigrating therefrom after such last-mentioned order shall have been presented to and had a note made thereon by the Commissioner as in “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” provided And whereas by “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” it is provided that at the expiration of five years from the day of arrival stated in the note made by the Commissioner on any such last-mentioned land order as the day of the arrival of the person named therein the person entitled to any land selected under any such order shall be entitled to a Crown Grant thereof on proving to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that the person in respect of whom such land order shall have been granted is then within the Province and has resided therein not less altogether than forty-eight calendar months out of the said five years And whereas by “The Auckland Waste Lands Act Amendment Act 1862” after reciting that under the provisions of “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” certain land orders have been and might thereafter be issued entitling the holders thereof to the selection of land subject to the condition of residence in the Province of Auckland for a period of four years and it is expedient to reduce the term of residence required in the said Province to three years and to alter the other provisions of the said Act in accordance with the said amendment it was enacted that sections seventy-one seventy-two seventy-seven seventy-eight and seventy-nine of “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” should be amended by substituting in each of the said sections respectively the word “three” for the word “five” and that the said sections should be read and construed as if the word “three” had been inserted therein in each part thereof instead of the word “five” And whereas William Russell Russell late a Captain in Her Majesty’s Fourteenth Regiment of Foot in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two under and in accordance with the provisions of “The Hawke’s Bay Naval and Military Settlers Act 1861” selected a certain parcel of land containing four hundred acres And whereas the said William Russell Russell after residing in the said Province of Hawke’s Bay for a period of three years and three hundred and fifty-two days out of the period of five years commencing on his arrival in the said Province as required by the provisions of “The Auckland Waste Lands Act 1858” left the said Province of Hawke’s Bay and remained absent therefrom until after the expiration of the said period of five years And whereas the said William Russell Russell inquired of the Commissioner of Waste Lands or other officers of the Waste Lands Board for the Province of Hawke’s Bay before absenting himself therefrom whether he had performed all the conditions entitling him to a grant of the land selected by him And whereas the said Commissioner or other officers believing that the provisions of “The Auckland Waste Lands Act Amendment Act 1862” extended and applied to the Province of Hawke’s Bay as well as to the Province of Auckland informed the said William Russell Russell that he had performed all such conditions as aforesaid and the said William Russell Russell relying on the information so given and not knowing or believing that any doubt existed as to the application of the said last-mentioned Act to the Province of Hawke’s Bay absented himself therefrom as aforesaid And whereas it is doubtful whether the said last-mentioned Act does apply to the Province of Hawke’s Bay and relying on such doubt one Charles Lambert being the occupier of the run within which the said parcel of land selected by the said William Russell Russell is situate has since the expiration of the said period of five years put in an application to purchase the said parcel of land in the manner and form prescribed by the laws regulating the sale of waste lands in the said Province of Hawke’s Bay and it is expedient that the said Charles Lambert should be permitted to complete the said purchase and that the said William Russell Russell should be permitted to select in lieu of the piece of land so selected by him the said William Russell Russell another portion of the waste lands of the Crown in the said Province of about equal value therewith