Raoul Is. descendants seek settlement rights

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 15

Raoul Is. descendants seek settlement rights

PA Auckland Descendants from the settlers of remote Raoul Island are seeking recognition of their settlement rights by the New Zealand Government The issue had rankled in the minds of family members for some years, said Mrs June Hieatt, a descendant and the Otara member of the Auckland Regional Authority. Her family’s situation was very similar to that of Maori land claimants and land rights should be recognised across the board, she said. Mrs Hieatt said the descendants were not claiming the island, but were seeking recognition that

an injustice had been done. Her great-grand-parents, Thomas and Fredrica Bell, had settled on Raoul Island in 1878 and raised a family of about 14 children there. Raoul Island was the biggest island of the Kermadec Islands, about 900 km from New Zealand and 1100 km from Fiji. When the New Zealand Government annexed the island in 1889, it forced the Bell family to live on the most barren and inhospitable side of the island, Mrs Hieatt said. This was a major factor in their decision to leave the island in 1914. The island was now Crown land and was the site of a meteoro-

logical service weather station. At a reunion of Bell descendants at Tuakau on Saturday it was decided to seek recognition of the Bell's pioneering work on the island, Mrs Hieatt said.

The family would send a submission to the Minister of Lands, Mr Tapsell, outlining the island’s history, she said. There was a risk the island would be transferred to a State-owned enterprise and any claims would be lost. About 40 Bell descendants, representing four generations, attended the reunion.