No. 4.
Memorandum by Mr. W. H. Cutten on Papers relative to the Claims of Karetai and others upon the Pilot Station, Taiaroa Heads.
There are no papers in the Land Office of Otago relative to this matter, except the Crown Grants to the New Zealand Company of the Otago Purchase. From what I can learn from the Natives here, and the papers forwarded, the Natives have no claim to what is called the Pilot Station and Lighthouse Site at Taiaroa Head. The true position of the Government Reserve is, I believe, indicated on the Sketch No. 1 attached to the papers, and admitted to be so by the Natives in their letter of the 10th of August, 1854. The Provincial Government found that it was necessary to use a part of the Native Reserve to keep the pilot boats hauled up, and pay rent to the Natives for the use of it. I think that the pilots must be encroaching on the reserve, and hence the dissatisfaction of the Natives; and the only way to set the matter at rest will be to have the land surveyed, and the boundaries distinctly marked on the ground.
W. H. Cutten,
Commissioner of Crown Lands, Otago.