Maori Deeds of Old Private Land Purchases in New Zealand, From the Year 1815 to 1840, with Pre-Emptive and Other Claims
[Commissioner Bell's report]
This grant was duly called in by the Attorney-General, and the description not being found to agree with the survey, the grant was ordered to be cancelled on the 21st May, 1862.
The claim for the new grant was put in by the attorney of the trustees under the will of Francis Robinson, who had died since the date of the grant. By the exemplification of the will produced before me, it appeared that the will was made on the 27 July, 1855, whereby, after making certain dispositions on behalf of his widow, he devised and bequeathed all his real and personal estate to Hardy Robinson, William Sidebotham, and Samuel Wright Wilkinson, upon certain trusts. Samuel W. Wilkinson renounced the trust on the 27 December, 1855, leaving Hardy Robinson and William Sidebotham sole trustees, who, in a formal notice to me, dated the 20th November, 1860, claimed the new grant in their names as such trustees.
The island was surveyed in 1861, and the total area found to be 360 acres. The attorney of the trustees, Walter Grahame, of Auckland, being authorized (under the power of attorney from the trustees, dated 20 November, 1860, and produced before me) to sell, agreed, under my advice and that of his counsel, T. H. Bartley, Esq., that the grant should not be immediately issued, but that an order should be made for its issue either to the trustees or to any one, a purchaser from them, so as to facilitate the dealing with the land under the power of attorney.
F. D. Bell,
L.C.C.