A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

Replies to Queries proposed by the Select Committee of the Provincial Council upon Message No. 4

Replies to Queries proposed by the Select Committee of the Provincial Council upon Message No. 4

1. I am the Resident Magistrate of Dunedin, and Commissioner for Native Reserves for the Province of Otago.
2. I first arrived in this Province in the month of April, 1848.
3. I have no knowledge of the purpose for which the piece of land referred to was originally laid off. As one of the general public, I was always led to understand it was a Public Reserve.
4. I do not know when the reserve was originally laid off, nor by whose authority it was so done.
5 and 6. I recollect being informed, I think in the year 1853, by Mr. Mantell, the then Commissioner of Crown Lands for this Province, that he had recommended for the consideration of the Governor-in-Chief, that the piece of land indicated should be appropriated as a Native Reserve; and I also recollect Mr. Mantell subsequently informing me that his suggestion had been approved of, and that the land was consequently set apart for the purposes of a Native Reserve.
Dunedin, 4th May, 1865.

A. Chetham-Strole.