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

Enclosure 2 in No. 20. — Commissioner of Crown Lands' Report upon Native Reserves

Enclosure 2 in No. 20.
Commissioner of Crown Lands' Report upon Native Reserves.

Since the above Report was made, the Province of Otago has been divided, and the reserves numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are now within the boundaries of the Province of Southland.

It is not possible to give any satisfactory estimate of the value of the various reserves. They are all of greater value than the adjoining Crown lands, and in some instances, such as the reserves at the Otago Heads, the Taieri, Moeraki, and Jacob's River, which are well adapted for town sites, they are of great value. I have no hesitation in saying, that were a town laid out at the Otago Heads it would sell for more than the usual upset price of £50 per acre, and that probably £5,000 would be obtained for it in the course of one or two years. Were another town laid off at the Taieri, I believe that £10,000 might be obtained for it in less than twelve months. The reserve at Moeraki is not so immediately available, because the Town Reserve belonging to the Government has not yet been surveyed and laid out; but immediately after a Government township has been sold, or in part sold, all the adjoining Maori land would sell readily at high prices. All the reserves, with the exception of those at Port Chalmers and Dunedin, the reserve for timber, at Moeraki, and the exchange at Moeraki, and the extension at Waikouaiti, were made at the time of the extinction of the Native title to the land in the Province of Otago, and are more or less used by the Natives for occupation, residence, and cultivation. The reserves at Port Chalmers and Princes Street, Dunedin, were selected with the view of affording accommodation to the Natives on their visits to those places; but as both reserves were and are entirely useless for the purpose contemplated, they have never been used by the Natives.

In 1859 (December) Mr. Stafford and Mr. Richmond, then members of the General Government, visited Otago, and seeing the unfitness of the position of the reserve in Dunedin for the object proposed, arranged with the then Superintendent, who allowed the erection of the stone building now used by the Natives on land which had been granted to the Superintendent in trust as the site of public buildings.

No authority until lately has been given to the Commissioner of Crown Lands to let reserves, and the Commissioners of Native Reserves have had no title to land, consequently no revenue has hitherto been derived from any Native Reserve in Otago.

Part of the reserve in Princes Street, Dunedin, has for many years been used by the Provincial Government as the site of Immigration Barracks, and latterly also for Police Barracks. On the 5th instant, 16 sections, containing 1 acre 12 perches, were, in accordance with the instructions of the Honorable the Colonial Treasurer, offered for occupation for one year. The whole were let at a gross rental of £2,529 6s. 6d. per annum. A deposit of 10 percent was paid at the time of the sale, the purchaser being at liberty to take up his license upon payment of the rent in advance within one month. Up to the present time, 18th February, the sum of £395 4s. has been received and paid into the Union Bank of Australia under a separate head from other Crown revenue, to await instructions for its disposal. Before any definite steps are taken by the Government on this point, I have to request the opportunity of reporting specially on this reserve, and to suggest that before any Crown Grant is issued for the land in question, care be taken that the water frontage is reserved, otherwise an impediment will be placed in the way of contemplated harbour improvements.

Of Reserve No. 12b., I may observe that Mr. Mantell only reserved the bush growing on ten acres of land; that his reserve did not include the land. Mr. Mantell's object in making the reserve was to compensate the Moeraki Natives for the loss of timber which they supposed themselves to sustain in consequence of the reserve for a town which Mr. Mantell had made at Moeraki. On the occasion of Mr. Mantell's visit to Otago he explained to me the circumstances of the case, at the same time stating Matiaha Tiramorehu, a cheif of the Natives residing at Moeraki, wished to purchase the land, to hold on behalf of the other Natives resident at Moeraki. I therefore, as Chief Commissioner of the Waste Land Board, consented to Matiaha Tiramorehu purchasing the land, together with a further quantity of ten acres adjoining, which Mr. Mantell had agreed to grant, but which the Natives had hitherto neglected to pay for, owing to some mistake on their part in intrusting the money to a person in Otago, whom they supposed had paid it into the Land Office.

Ten acres of sections 7 and 8, B1, Portobello District, were sold by me to Patoronui Pu, a Native resident at the Heads. The purchase was understood to be on behalf of the whole body, but the purchase was made in the ordinary way in which sales of land are made to the public. It cannot therefore be considered a reserve, but at the same time the Natives may be willing that it should be administered by Commissioners for Native Reserves.

The management of all the Native Reserves in this Province has been deputed to certain Commissioners, for whose information the Report to the Superintendent forwarded herewith was prepared. I have not had any communication with these gentlemen, and am therefore ignorant of the steps they have taken to carry out the duties intrusted to them. The great difficulty in the matter is, that unless the Natives consent to extinguish their original title and accept a title from the Crown, the Commissioners have no power to deal with the land. Were this done, and were the Natives to consent to the sale of a portion of their reserves for Village sites, the Commissioners would have ample funds at their command to effect great improvements in the condition of the Maoris, both socially and morally.

It is not advisable in this Report to enter into a lengthened discussion as to how these improvements should be effected. I rather understand it to be the desire of the Government to ascertain from me how the means are to be obtained from the Native Reserves to carry out such improvements. I fear that the gentlemen at present appointed as Commissioners have too many other engagements to be enabled to give much time or attention to the Commission, and I would suggest that Mr. Baker should be added to the Commission, or that he should be appointed Secretary, with a sufficient salary to insure the matters connected with the management of the Native Reserves being thoroughly attended to. That gentleman's knowledge of the Native language and experience of the Native character would make his services invaluable, and undoubtedly the property of which the Natives are possessed is amply sufficient to provide every requisite for the education and improvement of the Maoris of Otago. It is therefore much to be regretted that it should be lying waste, and unprofitable either to the Natives or any one else.

I have, &c.,

W. H. Cutten,
Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands.

The Hon. the Colonial Treasurer, Auckland.