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An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

[No. 20.]

page 14

No. 20.

His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Eyre to Lieut. Colonel McCleverty.

Crown Grant to be issued subject to Native Reserves. Government House, Wellington, 2nd December, 1847.

Sir,—

I have the honour to inform you that Colonel Wakefield has signified his intention to me of accepting, on behalf of the New Zealand Company, a Crown grant for that portion of the Port Nicholson claim which is comprised within the limits of the surveyed lands, subject to the exceptions and reservations marked in Schedules A and B of the returns forwarded as enclosures to your report. There is one alteration, however, to which on behalf of the Crown I have consented, viz., the withdrawal of No. 2 from the exceptions enumerated in Schedule A. This being an acre in the town upon which the Company have buildings, and have expended a considerable sum, Colonel Wakefield is anxious to retain it on their behalf. There is also a settlers' section at Ngauranga, out of which a Native cultivation of about 23½ acres is included among the reservations specified in the schedules: this Colonel Wakefield thinks he can arrange the purchase of with the Native owners, and I have consented to his doing so, under your sanction. It must, however, be returned among the exceptions until the adjustment is completed.

Having received from Colonel Wakefield duly-certified copies of the maps constructed from the Company's surveys, I should feel obliged by your directing a careful examination and comparison to be instituted between them and the maps used in completing the schedules. If corresponding, I shall feel obliged by your affording the Crown Solicitor the necessary information to enable him to prepare the Crown grant, and I will refer him to you for the purpose.

I cannot close this despatch without congratulating you upon the successful issue to which by your exertions you have brought this most difficult question, and thanking you for the zealous, able, and persevering manner in which the important duty confided to you has been discharged—a feeling which I am happy to say is fully participated in by the New Zealand Company's principal agent, who, in the latter part of a letter accepting the grant as offered to him, says: "I cannot conclude this communication without the expression of my full approbation of the manner in which Colonel McCleverty has overcome in this instance the difficulties of the mission with which he is intrusted."

E. J. Eyre.

Lieut.-Colonel McCleverty.

Memorandum by Commissioner McCleverty.

The Crown grants for Port Nicholson and Porirua give absolutely 209,000 and 68,000 acres to the New Zealand Company. Boundaries on the land side are undefined, except as an irregularly-dotted line. The plans and correspondence show that the whole areas of the blocks were not intended to be vested in the Company, the Native title not being extinguished to certain portions of the blocks. The original Crown grants, with the plans attached, are in the possession of Mr. Kelham.

W. A. McCleverty.

29th December, 1855.