No. 30.
The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Otago, to the Secretary for Crown Lands.
Sir,—
I have the honor to enclose a memorial from certain tenants of Crown lands occupying the reserve on the east side of Princes Street, relative to which reserve a question arises whether it is a reserve for the Maoris or a reserve for a quay. The statements made by the memorialists are substantially true, and there can be no doubt that the rents paid could not be obtained if the land were now offered by auction. The memorialists have to put up buildings in many cases of a substantial character, hence they are necessitated to pay a high rent or abandon the improvements they have made. I am of opinion that on an average £3 per foot frontage would be a fair rent, and I have therefore to recommend that I be instructed to make such reductions as I may find advisable, not being less than £3 per foot, except in the case of sections 15, 16, and 17, which are not worth more than £2 per foot frontage.
I have, &c.,
W.H.
Cutten,
Commissioner of Crown Lands.
The Secretary for Crown Lands, Auckland.
Enclosure in No. 30.
To the
Secretary for
Crown Lands, Auckland.
This, the Memorial of the undersigned Residents in the Town of Dunedin, respectfully brings under your notice the under-mentioned case of hardship and oppression, to wit:
Your memorialists became tenants to the General Government in February, 1862, in so far that they at auction were the preferred lessees of the Crown Reserves situated on the south-east side of Princes Street South, as per plan attached herewith.
Your memorialists on arriving, with many others in the Province, at the very height of the gold mania, when fictitious prices for everything as well as land were current, and business sites being of a very limited extent, the leases of these allotments above referred to brought what has now turned out to be a most extraordinary and extravagant price, and such that your memorialists now feel unable to pay, and humbly crave your honorable consideration with a view to a reduction at the expiry of the present year ending the 5th of February, 1865, on the following grounds, viz.:—
Your memorialists humbly lay this memorial for your Honor's consideration, and earnestly crave acquiescence therein, for which as in duty bound your memorialists will ever pray.
John Crate (for Pickford and Co.), General Carriers.
Dunedin, New Zealand, 10th October, 1864.