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50/797 - 8th. Aug 1850. The Solicitor General to the Honorable The Colonial Secretary, reporting as to instructions to Commissioner of Wide Bay District : - No. 50/154.

Solicitor General's Office, Sydney. 5th. August 1850

Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th. ultimo, No. 50/657, transmitting the accompanying communication from the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, with its enclosures, requesting instructions as

The Honorable The Colonial Secretary

[marginalia] 50-6613

[?I consider?] the circumstances. of the Cattle having changed hands, & the complicated nature of the case, I think [?for] it will be better not to take any further proceeding in it. Ch FR 13th/14

Col Barney Aug 1850

as to the measures to be pursued by the Commissioner of the Wide Bay District with respect to the seizing of certain Cattle that arrived in his District, but which had not been returned for assessment;

2- In reply, I have the honor to state (in the absence of Circuit of the Attorney General), that in my opinion the cattle in question are liable to be seized and impounded by

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by the Commissioner of the Wide Bay District, and that the penalty may be enforced, notwithstanding the removal of the Cattle from one District to another, so stated in the correspondence.

3 - I would however suggest that as the property[?] in the Cattle seems to have changed hands between the period within which they should have been returned for assessment and that fixed for payment of the amount

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amount of such assessment, and as the offence in respect of which the "penalty" of two shillings and six pence a head is imposed is the not making such Returns, the present owner should be warned of the intention to impound and allowed to pay the amount of assessment instead of the penalty if he be willing to do so without putting the Crown to the enforcement

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enforcement of its strict rights - The assessment I may observe, differs from the penalty in this, that it is in the nature of a tax upon or in respect of the Cattle themselves, in return for privileges extending over the whole year and irrespective of locality - so far as regards the division of the [?West?] Lands into various Commissioners Districts - whereas the penalty of two shillings and

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