A Land Boom in Sydney

During the closing years of the “eighteen–thirties” a boom in New Zealand lands raged in Sydney. The decision by the New South Wales Governor to finalise the Treaty of Wiatangi in 1840 added fuel to the flame. This land fever has been described as “sharking” or “grabbing,” and “bona fide speculation.” Old official records state:—

“Almost every captain of a ship arriving at Sydney from New Zealand exhibited a piece of paper with a tattooed Native head rudely drawn on it, which he described as the title deed of an estate bought for a few muskets, hatchets or blankets… Other captains were supplied in Sydney with blank ‘Deeds of Feoffment’ for use in these purchases… Among other claimants to land in the Southern portion of the Colony, Mr. Wentworth asserted his right to 20,100,000 acres in the Middle Island; Catlin & Co., 7,000,000; Weller & Co., 3,557,000; Jones & Co., 1,930,000; Peacock & Co., 1,450,000; Green & Co., 1,377,000; Guard & Co., 1,200,000; and the New Zealand Company to 20,000,000 acres… One Company, consisting of four page 16 gentlemen, claimed the Middle Island, excepting all previously sold, in consideration of giving the Chiefs a few hundred pounds in money and a life annuity of £100 per annum.”

In most of these deals an old Port Molyneux boy, Tuhawaiki, the greatest of all South Island land salesmen, played a prominent part.

Sir George Gipps, then Governor of New South Wales, put a damper on these proceedings by issuing a proclamation prohibiting all future purchases of land from Natives and appointing commissioners to investigate all purchases previously made. “Sufficient payment” was fixed at varying rates: Between 1815 and 1824, 6d per acre; 1835 and 1836, 1s to 2s per acre; 1839, 4s to 8s per acre.

As the amount of cash in each purchase had been small, grants for only very small areas were authorised.

All Claims Disallowed.

Some particulars of all claims lodged are printed in a Parliamentary paper known as D—14, which is an appendix to the “Report of the Land Claims Commissioner.” This was presented to the House of Representatives on the 8th of July, 1862.

Of the thousands of claims made for areas alleged to have been purchased in the North and South Islands, those in the list below are the Molyneux claims.

The acreage in six claims, for which areas are given, total 1,360,482 acres. For five other claims no acreages are given.

Claim No. 267 is obviously the one that caused Willsher and Russell to sail with Thomas Jones in the “Portenia.” Probably the vessel cleared for Cloudy Bay to throw other claimants off the scent.

In this table is given, first, the claim number; second, name of claimant; third, the year purchase was made; then the amount paid, if available; and, last, how the claim was dealt with:—

No. 72.—Brown and Campbell. 1838 to 1840. Claim disallowed.

No. 255.—John Jones. Claimant sold half claim to C. Wentworth and two–twelfths to Brown and Campbell. 1838. Paid £200. Claim withdrawn.

No. 267.—Thomas Jones. 1839. Claimed 256,000 acres. Disallowed, claimant not appearing.

No. 276.—A. Lamont. 1840. Claimed 1281 acres. Disallowed.

No. 281.—James Liddle. 1840. Claimed 1281 acres. Disallowed. No claim preferred.

No. 296.—A. McIntyre. 1840. Claimed 1920 acres. Disallowed. No claim preferred.

No. 476.—F. W. Unwin. 1838. Claim disallowed.

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No. 482.—Edward Weller. 1839. Paid £82. Claimed 1,000,000 acres at Molyneux. In addition, claimed additional areas elsewhere in South Island of 881,360 acres. Disallowed. No claim preferred.

No. 488.—George Weller. 1839. Paid £91 13s. Claimed 100,000 acres at Molyneux. In addition, claimed additional areas of 845,360 in the South Island and 480,200 in the North Island. Disallowed, the claimant not appearing. In 1846 the claimant applied to have claim reopened, but refused. The claimant stated that he and Edward Weller had actually surveyed 63,600 acres at a cost of £800, and had sold 14,000 at 5s per acre to other persons.

No. 497.—W. C. Wentworth. 1839. Acreage claimed at Molyneux not stated. In addition, made 12 other claims in both islands. All these claims were disallowed, the claimant not appearing. There appears to have been a kind of partnership between Messrs. Wentworth, Jones, Leathart and others, of Sydney, in these claims.

No. 1350.—Edward Hunt. Paid £30. Not referred to any commissioner. No claim preferred.

The Speculation of Thomas Jones, of Sydney.

In the reminiscences of J. E. Richter, published in the Sydney Mail (date unknown), we get some interesting details about the land, the purchase price, and Jones, the purchaser:—

“I was well acquainted with one purchase made in Sydney from the Chief Tewaiki of a block of 20 miles square (400 square miles) for a few whaleboats, guns, fishing tackle, flour, etc., in value about £70.

“This block was sold to Thomas Jones, who was then a wine and spirit merchant of Bathurst Street, Sydney, and a brother of David Jones, the founder of a large drapery business still carried on in George Street.

“… That particular land is now regarded as one of the finest parts in New Zealand, the River Molyneux running through the centre of it. It included the present town of Balclutha as well as the Kaitangata Coal Mines, with a seam of 30 feet in thickness. Its value now would amount to over two millions.

“Money was hard to obtain from financial institutions in the forties, to carry out the conditions of a speculation of this kind, when the existence of New Zealand as a British colony was still in doubt, and when it was by no means certain that the new settlers would not be driven out by the Maoris…”

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Lands Sold and Price Paid.

A search of the records available in the Lands Department in New Zealand discloses the nearest we can get to the facts.

The original deed of sale is not included in the New Zealand records, but may be in existence in Sydney. Bearing in mind that there were no typewriters in 1840; that the New Zealand copy is a hand–written copy of the original; and that in some parts the papers are torn—bearing all these things in mind, the following facts emerge:—

The seller was “John Toawack.” The purchaser was “Thomas Jones, of Sydney, merchant.”

The land was “a tract of land … adjoining by Molyneux Harbour or Bay”; and the boundaries were described as “from the commencement of Point Tuguttar in Molyneux Bay extending in a South–westerly direction as far as Port Owarker Lower, which adjoins Mr. Edward Cattlin's purchase, and land extending ten miles on each side of Mataw River which disembogues itself into Molyneux Bay and running back twenty miles into the interior, thus forming a tract of land four hundred miles square.” (Really twenty miles square, or four hundred square miles.)

The date was “the seventh day of January, 1840.”

The purchase price was “thirty pounds sterling money of Great Britain, and other goods.” It appears that these other goods were of the value of £13 9s, according to Sydney prices. This is a total of £43 9s. There is also mention of a £20 annuity to John Tohowick, but there is apparently no documentary evidence that an annuity was paid.

The Block “Twenty Miles Square.”

If a map is taken, it is possible to identify Point Tuguttar as Point Tokata, or Nugget Point. Point Owaka Lower is obviously somewhere about the mouth of the Owaka River. The boundaries mentioned in one of Cattlin's purchases are:—

“A tract of land described as near Molyneux Bay in the Middle Island. The northern boundary commences at Wangapawa, a point south of Matau (Molyneux Harbour), and extending inland to the mountains. The eastern boundary is the sea coast, and extending as far as the South Head of a small harbour called Owaka, from which point a line drawn inland to the mountains from the southern boundary.”

So far I cannot determine the place name Wangapawa. And at first sight it is difficult to draw a map of a block twenty miles square with a baseline of the mileage from Nugget Point to the mouth of the Owaka River. If, however, we take the old mouth of the Molyneux page 19 and mark a point ten miles north of it, and another ten miles south, we will find the two extremities as indicated in the sketch map. Ten miles from the old mouth of the Matau measured south alongthe coast arrives at a point about False Island, just to the north of the Owaka estuary.

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If inland we measure twenty miles up the Molyneux, we get to somewhere near the mouth of the Waiwera River, with a western point towards Clinton and an eastern limit about Clarksville.

On a map it would enclose the area shown on the sketch map, and this approximates to the description given by Richter in his reminiscences.