Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island. Volume Two.

[No. 5. — Copy of letter from D. Sinclair, Esq., R.M., to the Hon. Colonial Secretary]

No. 5.

Copy of letter from D. Sinclair, Esq., R.M., to the Hon. Colonial Secretary.

Resident Magistrate's Office, Nelson, October 19th, 1847.

Sir,

Referring to my letter to you of date 20th August last, No. 47-115, in which I informed you that I had been instructed by His Honor the Superintendent to proceed to Massacre Bay, and there select for the Natives of that district as much land, in addition to their present cultivations, &c., as I should consider sufficient for their present and future wants, I have now the honour to report to you, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, that I left this on the 31st August last, and arrived at the Aorere on the 2nd ultimo, and there commenced the duty required of me.

At each place I visited, I obtained a correct census of the Native population, and then carefully inspected the present reserves, from which, owing to their being in a great measure worthless, as well on account of local position and nature of soil, as on account of the improved habits of cultivation now followed by the Natives, I made what I considered to be proper deductions, to enable me to say with reference to the population and their present and future wants, how much additional land was required in each district.

I was extremely desirous to have laid out the additional land in one block in each place, but I found the family jealousies, which prevailed among the Natives, rendered this impracticable, and, therefore, I directed the required additions to be made up by straightening the edges of some of the existing reserves, and taking the remainder of the required land as close to the present reserves as I could obtain good available land, in every instance endeavouring, as far as in my power, to interfere as little as possible with the New Zealand Company's surveys, and deeming it better to fix upon suitable quantities of good and available land, than to listen to the importunities of the Natives for large blocks, which with their present numbers (and it does not seem to me that they are on the increase, but the contrary), they never will or can cultivate, and the giving of which to them would seriously interfere with any attempt of locating European settlers among them.

At the Aorere, after straightening the edges of existing reserves as shown in Plan No. 1, I have chosen two of the New Zealand Company's sections in that district, viz., Nos. 13 and 34, as sufficient for the people there. I give no plan of those sections, as I imagine it will be sufficient to refer to the New Zealand Company's certified plan in the Surveyor General's Office at Auckland, and in the Crown page 271grant, to show or state that those two sections are specifically reserved for the Natives, Section No. 13 being for the Ngatitama, and Section No. 34, being for the Mitiwai, people now respectively resident at Aorere, leaving them to adjust among themselves the mode in which they will in future occupy the old reserves and straightened edges.

In the valley of the Takaka, I again found the Natives of the same families and with the same jealousies as at the Aorere, and, therefore, I was under the necessity of selecting the additional land in contiguity to that occupied by each family. The selection for this district is marked on the accompanying plan as No. 2, the colouring of the old reserves being tinted pink, the additional reserves and straightened edges in Sections 14, 15, and 16, as marked on the New Zealand Company's plan being coloured yellow, and belonging to the Ngatiraruas are tinted lilac, and the additional block and straightened edges in Sections 11, 12, and 17, of the New Zealand Company's plan, being also coloured yellow. In like manner the pink tint shows to whom the old reserves in the Waitapu Coast belong, viz., to the Ngatiraruas whose chief is Te Aupouri. I next visited Motupipi, and the required land for the people there in addition to that I have selected for them in Takaka valley. I obtain by straightening the edges of the present reserves as appears by "Takaka," Plan No. 3, the additional land so selected being tinted yellow, and the old reserves pink.

The following is a statement of the lands and population of the foregoing districts:—

Abstract of Native Reserves.
Locality. Old Reserves. Straightened Edges. Additional by Block. Total. Remarks.
A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P.
Aorere river, North side 23 0 8 9 1 26 150 0 0 182 1 34
" river, South side 23 2 21 7 0 22 150 0 0 180 3 3
" coast 90 0 30 90 0 30 Old reserves, estimated as available lands at 25 acres
Parapara 21 2 22 21 2 22 Old reserves, estimated as worth 19 acres
Tukurua 15 2 14 15 2 14 Old reserve, estimated as worth 7 acres
Pariwakaho 9 2 36 9 2 36
Waikaha coast 59 3 35 59 3 35 Old reserve, estimated as worth 21 acres
Takaka, Ngatirarua 67 0 8 7 0 5 60 0 33 134 1 6 Old reserves, estimated as worth 52 acres
" Ngatitama 29 3 19 38 1 25 150 0 0 218 1 4
Waitapu, Ngatirarua 9 2 28 4 1 34 14 0 22 Old reserve, estimated as worth 8 acres
Motupipi 91 3 22 49 2 39 141 2 21
Tata, Ngatirarua 18 3 5 18 3 5 Old reserve, estimated as worth 9 acres
Totals 461 0 1 116 0 30 510 0 33 1087 0 32

Abstract of Population.

Place. Men. Women. Children. Totals.
Males. Females.
Aorere, Mitiwai 25 22 8 13 68
" Ngatitama 12 8 2 2 24
Pariwakaho 2 5 1 8
Takaka Ngatirarua 3 6 1 10
" Ngatitama 18 11 2 1 32
Motupipi Ngatirarua 6 5 2 2 15
" " 10 6 3 1 20
Totals 76 63 17 21 177

At Motupipi my mission may be said to have terminated, inasmuch as none of the land between that place and Sandy Bay (vide the New Zealand Company's plan) has been surveyed, but between Takapu, in Massacre Bay, and Anapai Bay (both inclusive), which latter place is just as you round Separation Point and where Tasman's Gulf begins, there are various reserves and cultivations, which, as it was all in my way homewards, and as it might possibly save future expense to the Government, I thought it as well to visit, and to adopt the same plan with them as I had pursued elsewhere, and in the event of the New Zealand Company desiring to have that district, I caused the accompanying Plans Nos. 4 and 5 to be prepared, which for the sake of reference I have denominated the wainui reserves, commencing at Point Burgess, and terminating at Anapai Bay; in which valley called Wainui, I beg to suggest that the block of 200 acres, coloured yellow (the old reserves being tinted pink), should be set aside for the people of that district, who are of the Ngatitama race, and as to whom I subjoin a statement of the contents of their present reserves and population.

I ought to observe that these Natives deny having received compensation from the New Zealand Company, and they look for payment before they will allow the Company to survey the land; however, it seems to me to be of very little consequence to the Company, as beyond the block I have set off in the Wainui Valley, there is very little other available land in the whole district, and very few inducements for European cultivators to occupy it.

page 272

Abstract of the Wainui Reserves.

Locality. Old Reserves. Straightened Edges. Additional by Block. Total. Remarks.
A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P. A. R. P.
Takapu 49 2 2 49 2 2 Old reserves, estimated as worth 93 acres
Wainui valley 41 1 0 200 0 0 241 1 0 Old reserves, estimated as worth 93 acres
Taupo 157 2 10 157 2 10 Old reserves, estimated as worth 93 acres
Separation Point to Anapai Bay 27 2 35 27 2 35 Estimated as worth 17 acres
Totals 276 0 7 200 0 0 476 0 7

Abstract of the Wainui Population.

Place. Men. Women. Children. Totals.
Males. Females.
Wainui and Takapu 22 19 5 3 49
Taupo 5 5 5 15
Totals 27 24 5 8 64

Should this report and the selection of land I have made be approved of, it will be necessary to employ a surveyor to cut the new lines, and I beg to suggest that an attested copy of the plan of each district should be furnished to the Natives, along with a copy of the census I have taken (containing the names of every man, woman, and child), which would form a kind of Title Deed, and would prevent disputes as to ownership or claims by interlopers in future.

In conclusion, I beg to say that I had much pleasure in co-operating with Mr. Charles Heaphy, the gentleman deputed by the New Zealand Company to act with me in this duty.

I have, &c.,

Donald Sinclair,
Resident Magistrate.

The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington.