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

No. 19. — Final Report on the Port Nicholson District

No. 19.
Final Report on the Port Nicholson District.

Wellington, 20th November, 1847.

Sir,—

I have the honour to transmit to your Excellency four forms, completed. The two first—A and B—are in compliance with your wishes, expressed to the following effect, in your letter dated the 21st October, 1847: "But the object he [the principal agent of the New Zealand Company] has in view would, I apprehend, be better attained by stating what are the portions of the area comprised within the whole block claimed by the Company which cannot be granted, but must remain excepted or reserved either for the Natives, or for public services, or because some dispute is involved as to the right European ownership of them….. It will be necessary that an accurate list of all lands which, for any of the reasons I have stated, cannot be included in the grant should be drawn up and recorded." The last two forms—C and D—serve to elucidate the cause of lands in unsurveyed districts, and on the Town Belt, being extended in quantity to the Natives beyond what they originally possessed.

Form A exhibits the lands excepted and reserved to the Town of Wellington and Town Belt, arranged in columns under the heads and purposes to which the lands are to be applied and reserved. Form B exhibits the lands excepted and reserved within the block of the Port Nicholson District exclusive of those enumerated in Form A, but similarly arranged; the boundaries of those on unsurveyed lands are stated on the reverse side of it. Form C shows the total quantity, where and how situated, of lands under cultivation belonging to the Natives of Port Nicholson previous to the arrangement under which the various portions as shown in Form D are disposed of. Form D shows the quantity of land on settlers' sections in fifty-four distinct patches. These are relinquished with the exception of 109½ acres on sections 7, 8, and 9, Harbour District, as shown by the note. By the deeds in the Government Survey Office, the Natives relinquish all cultivations on settlers' sections, with the above 109½ acres, as shown in Form B, column 5. Certain pas are reserved. I would remark that the 576 acres cultivated by the Natives of the Harbour of Port Nicholson and of Ohariu, on settlers' sections alone, are scattered over fifty-four separate cultivations, of most irregular form and various sizes, as shown in Form D.

The Natives of Ngauranga positively refused to give up on any account the cultivations and gardens around the Port, amounting to 109½ acres, on sections 7, 8, and 9…..

The four large blocks at Orongorongo, Parangarau, Te Korokoro, and Ohariu, are all on unsurveyed land, and may appear large in extent, but in reality they possess little land available for cultivation, particularly those at Orongorongo and Parangarau; nearly one-half of the former is not within the area of the block of the Port Nicholson Grant, being east of the Turakirai Range. On the block at Parangarau and Wainuiomata the Pitone Natives have eel-ponds, extensive cultivations, and other vegetable productions; both this and the block at Orongorongo are used as fishing stations. The block at Te Korokoro is near the Pitone Pa, the Natives of which have one or more cultivations in the centre of it, and of irregular shape. The block at Ohariu comprises 121 acres on nineteen different scattered irregular-shaped gardens, already in use. The boundaries of that block are defined….

More than 1,300 acres of the Town Belt still remain for public purposes. The Natives originally had sixty-two acres under cultivation at the time of the arrangement in January, 1844, and with Governor Grey's sanction now increased to 219 acres, it has much assisted in the removal of other difficulties.

There are several smaller settlements on the coast between Cape Terawhiti and Ohariu, and from thence up to Te Arataua, such as Waiariki, Otuongo, Ohau, Te Kaniru, Opau, and Pipinui: with the exception of Ohariu, none of these pas, small in population, have cultivations on settlers' sections; they are wholly on unsurveyed land, and I would suggest, as the large block unsurveyed, which comprises these lands, has not been allotted to settlers as stated in the heading of Form B, that the New Zealand Company should appoint a surveyor in co-operation with one on the part of Government to survey and define the present cultivations, as well as the convenient blocks of lands, for the purpose of future cultivations in such localities as the Natives may select themselves…..

W. A. McCleverty.

His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Eyre.