THE PRINCES-STREET NATIVE RESERVE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17936, 15 May 1920, Page 10

THE PRINCES-STREET NATIVE RESERVE.

TO THE KDITOB. Sir, —I suppose many of your readers wore shocked to hear the president of the Ouago Institute, himself the son of an eaarjy settler, charge ilia founders of Otago with breach of taiih and deliberate misappropriation of a valuable reserve. It is to be regretted h'O did not more oarefully collect all the facte before launching hia attack—an attack which has already been copied into northern papers. When I heard Dr Fulton on Tuesday night I saw he was giving only one side, but preferred to look up the faefcs before essaying a reply. I have now coneultod the Native reports in the M'Nab Library, and bos that he dad not even give the facta on one side correctly. I shall give yottr readers the main .points of the story in us short a space as possible and then let them, judge. The disputed ground was first laid off as a town section and opened for ©election: but before the first settlers arrived in 1848 the i\ T ew Zealand Land Company withdrew tie whole of the water frontage sections from sale with the view of the -ultimate formation of a quay or jetty. The land was not formally reserved for a jetty, but was marked on tho town map as "reserve." The Natives in thc<so early days used to come up frojn the Hoadls in their boats to sell fish- Their landing pkoe was not on this section, but at a place near. It was proposed to give the Maoris a piece of land for their huts, Mr Walter Mantall, tho Commissioner of Qrown Lands in 1852, took it upon himself, without consulting tho provincial authorities and without reference to the chief surveyor, to write to Wellington suggesting that this eoction should be reserved for the Natives. Had he consulted Mr Kettle he would have been told that the land was already, though not formally, a reserve. The Governor, without reference cither to his executive or to tho Otago authorities, marked the letter "approved." N 0 proclamation, howwas. made and no grant was issued. The Natives never used the land in question but continued to use the first landing place where the Government built them a house. The 0 i*ago authorities all along claimed that the section waa intended as a wharf reserve, and when they beard what had been' done they disputed the power of the Governor to reserve it for Natives without reference to them. Tho matter was inquired into by select committees of the Provincial 'Council and of the House of Representatives, and both decided in favour of the Otago contentions Tho latter committee reported: "After careful consideration of the above facts as to the equity of the case your committee has arrived at tho conclusion that the land forming the Durtedin reserve, having been reserved from sale for a specific public purpose, was wrongfully set aside for the use of the Natives, and therefore recommend that a Crown grant bo issued in favour of the Municipality of Dunedin, as trustees o.nd representatives of the . local public, as 'was evidently the intention of the New Zealand Company in the .instructions to Colonel Wakefield." A Crovrn grant was then issued in pursuance of this recommendation as a reserve for wharves and quays. Later on Taiaroa, on behalf of himself and other Natives, brought an action against the provincial authorities, but the Supremo Court decided against him. He appealed: to the Court of Appeal, and it also decidfed >'n favour of the province («» Regina v. Macandrew, 1 C. A. 172). Although victorious in law the Government softened its heart and paid Tfl.ia.roa £5060 as settlement of the Maori claim, Tainroa withdrawing an appeal which he had lodged to the Privy Council. This success only whetted tho appetite of our brothers at the Heads, for they returned to the charge with a claim on Parliament for accumulated rents. Although there wan no legal liability, a further .£SOOO was voted to them out of tho public funds. So the poor, hardly-used, and unsophisticated Maori, about whose woes Or Fulton so patJietjoUlly appeals, got away with £10.0S0 as compensation for an official blunder which had not dr/no him a fraction of injury. It is evident that Mr Mantell was much to blarno for tho whole niattor. Had he referred to tho chief surveyor or the Superintendent tho whole trouble would have been avoided. From a town planning point of view his Action would have been a fatal blow to the advance oif Dunsdin. The man who wanted to make a Native reserve at such a plmce bad no vision and little common sonse. Mt Ma.ntell ha<3 evidently peculiar notions about City reserves. Ho tried to have the Octagon reserve (which, like the wharf Twerve, bad not been formally gazetted) granted as a. church site, and it woo cmly by moans of a bitter struggle that breathing-p'loce was retained for tho citizens. Suoh i 6 an outline of tho story of the Native reserve. I. fail to find anything in it to warrant Dr Fulton's strictures on the provincial authorities or to justify his charges. Pome of th" men who deserve the thanks of tlv's generation for preventing the wrong that was so nearly carried out by a trio-pushing official and a caroleß* Governor were Captain CarffiU. Measrs Kettle. Cut'on, W. H. Itoynolds, Ronnie, and James WiiKiaiidrew.—l am, etc., Ronzwr Gmucow. May 11