SUNDAY ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 225, 20 September 1894, Page 8

SUNDAY ISLAND.

MR BELL'S CLAIM.

Mb Thomas Bull, of Sunday leland, arrived in Auckland in H.M.s. Rapid for ■the purpose of ventilating his griovanco againsb the Government, in regard bo tho annaxation of Sunday Island. He leaves for Wellington on Monday nexb to pub tha whole matter before His Excellency the Governor, Lord .Glasgow. Mr 801 l seeks compensation for the losses sustained by him through the annexation of bhe island by the Government eight years ago.

Today Mr Bell told a Star reporter thab he landed afc Donham Bay, Sunday Island, with Mb wife and family from fcbo schooner Norval on the. 9th of December 1878. .They were eight in all, the family consisting of three boys and three girls, the eldest being a girl about 11 years old at the tirao. Ho paid the master of the Norval as passage inonoy the sum of SOsova. The island was unoccupied, and ito was the intention of Mr Bell to raise produco for the New Zealand market) thereon and also try sheepfarnaing. it was found, however, that cultivation in Donham Bay was useless, partly owing to the poverty of tho soil, bub chiefly from the swarms of native rats thab made their appearance. After much dolay aad difficulty, Mr Bell obtained labour from Nine, on Savage Island, to assisb him in preparing the land for sheep-raising, crops, etc., and he afterwards brought a cargo of sheep from Auckland. The. Savage' Islanders brought tropical plants with them which did fairly well on the island. Three m'iloa of road across the island were made. The Savage Islanders' time of aervic,e having expired they were returned to tho island, and subsequently Mr Bell transferred his itstereßb in the inland to a company in Duaedin. - .-According to Mr Bell, the Company declined to fulfil tho conditions, and Mr.Bell threw up hisi salary of £100 per annum as manager oighb joars ago. For this roaaon he does do think the Company had any claim on the island when ib was annexed. The Company's chief outlay, he Bays, consisted in sending 500 sheep from Napier, few of which ever reached the island. Up to this time Mr Bell estimated hiß outlay at £2,000. The firijt notice Mr Bell says bo had of tho annexation of the island by tho Government was finding a flagstaff in Denhara Bay erected within a few yards of tbo landing place. Several months afterwards. Captain Fairchild, with Mr Percy Smith, landud from the a.B. Stella, hoisted the British flag near the dwelling and claimed the island x>n bohalf of tho New Zealand Government. Mr Smith said the annexation was merely to prevent any other Power from taking posasjssion. On the return of the Stella tho following year Captain Fairchild' told Mr Bell than all the island bad been leased to people in Now Zealand, and tihab the Government had been ploasod to allow hinv 100 acres around his homostead. Mr 801 l states he went to New Zealand, gob legal advice and informed the Government thab he claimed the island by right) of. occupancy, estimating his personal outlay ab £2,000, at which figure he waa prepared to hand over his interest. Ho received a reply from the Hon. Mr Richardson, then Miuister for Lands, abating the only ;claims the Now Zealand Governmcnb could recognise were those creatod by section 30 of tho Land Acb, clause 87, and also thab he had assigned his interest to a Company. Mr Bell saya the Government leased the best portion ot theisland to their settlers at un average of £1 por annum for 100 acres, so ib shows the value they pub on the island. Mr Ball cays he claims Sunday Island and bho adjacent rocks and islets by virtub of occupancy, and on the further ground thab Mr Percy Smith, the Now Zealand Government agent, aftor hoisting the Hag and reading Governor Sir Win. Jervqis's proclamation, informed him that he was a tenant ,ib will on lands now belonging to the Govern men b. Ho never consented to be annexed to New Zealand, and bad spent) the fruits and earnings of a lifetime on the island. Furbher, if the New Zaaland Government can prove a legal title to Sunday Island or any part thereof he will leave ib at once ; if nob he will retain possession and sue for.., damages. During Lord Glasgow's trip bo the Islands the Hinemoa called at Sunday Island.