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A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

W. H. Cutten, Esquire, examined:—

1.Have you any knowledge of a reserve being laid off fronting the water in the Town of Dunedin southward from Jetty Street, by Captain Cargill, as Resident Agent of the New Zealand Company? Yes.
2.If so, when was this reserve made, and for what purpose? The first I knew of the reserve being made was upon my landing in the Province, in March, 1848. I was one of the early purchasers of land under the New Zealand Company, and was desirous of selecting one of the sections that had been laid out fronting the water. Captain Cargill, the New Zealand Company's Agent, declined to allow me to make such selection, and stated that none of the water frontages would be sold, as they would be reserved for a quay fronting the water, and the selection of any of them by any private person would interfere with any future improvement of the harbour. Consequently I selected elsewhere. I was one of the first purchasers, and the only available spot that I could then secure was in Stuart Street. The whole frontage was reserved as far as Pelichet Bay.
3.Do you know of any reserve for Native purposes in Princes Street? As Commissioner of Crown Lands, I know of such a reserve. I never was aware of this land being reserved for Native purposes until I became a Crown Lands Commissioner, in the year 1858.
4.Are you aware by whose orders it was alienated, and upon what grounds? Mr. Mantell, as Crown Lands Commissioner, recommended by letter to the Governor that a portion of the water frontage, the piece of land in question, be reserved for the Maoris, as a place on which to draw up their boats, &c., and also a piece at Port Chalmers for the same purpose; and the Governor authorized him to make a reserve for that purpose. The land is not yet alienated; the fee-simple is still in the Crown.
5.Is there any portion of this frontage let? As Crown Lands Commissioner, I found that parties were continually squatting upon this frontage reserve, and I wrote requesting that I might be allowed to let it for short periods, and received permission to do so. This was accordingly done, and the land yields a revenue of about £2,000 a year; at present about one-third of the reserve is occupied by Provincial Government Buildings, and is consequently unlet.

W. H. Cutten.