Page 2 Advertisements Column 2

Otago Witness, Issue 305, 3 October 1857, Page 2

and a number of .sections were paid for and occupied about that time, and others subsequently ; but though the certificates' of occupation ought, in accordance with the terms of the Regulations, to have been given at the time of payment, it is a fact that not one settler at or near the Waiopai received such certificate in the year 1856. Only two certificatesof occupation were issued to settlers in that district prior to the middle of March 1857. (See Appendix B.) We are prepared to prove all this ; and we ask — How do these facts bear out Mr. Proudfoot's assertion, guarded and narrowed though it be by the conditional terms in which it is expressed ? The country eastward of the estuary of Waiopai has been triangulated for some miles inland, and a few sections (four or five) in depth, extending in succession eastward from the boundary of the town reserve, are pegged off on their frontage. Beyond these, the sections of Messrs. Rowan, Oughton, Drummond, Bethune, and all the other settlers, to the eastward, have neither been chained nor pegged off — with some exceptions mentioned further on. So far from these sections having been surveyed to the satisfaction of the occupants, as Mr. Proudfoot says was reported to him, those occupants are, on the contrary, so uncertain' of the position of their boundaries that they can neither fence nor cultivate with freedom ; and a rough measurement led to the belief that one settler had actually built his house partly on his own and partly on the next section. Mr. Townsend's survey on the 18th ult. (August) dispelled this idea. He at the same time surveyed properly the sections of Messrs. Oughton, Drummond, and M'Master (Punney). We conceive that land which has neither been chained nor pegged off cannot be considered properly surveyed so as to fit it for agricultural occupation, and we deliberately assert, and are prepared to prove, that most of the sections in the Waiopai district are in this category. We presume that payment of the deposit money on an application for surveyed land constitutes a valid title to a certificate of occupation. If these sections were properly surveyed before, for what reason have some of them been lately re-surveyed by Mr. Townsend ? and how did it happen, that not one of those who paid the deposit and settled on their sections in that district, received certificates of occupation in 1856 ? Are we to infer from Mr. Proudfoot's postcript that their titles were defective for other reasons ? If it were so, then how came it to pass, that after March 1857 many certificates of occupation were issued — some even to parties alluded to above, whose sections were neither pegged off nor chained ? We abstain from further extending the length of this Memorial, in the hope that a searching inquiry will be instituted into the proceedings of the "Waste Land Board during the period it has been in operation. Appendix A. No. 1. CASE OF MESSRS. CHUBBIN AND GUNN. Messrs. Chubbin and Gunn made an application for a Cattle Run (No. 130) on the right bank of the Mataura, which was approved of in the Land Office, and advertised Bth February, 1856. They drove cattle from the Province of Canterbury. When passing Dunedin in July, 1856, they gave notice in the Land Office that they were on the way to the run with their stock, and were then told that all was right. They went to the run directly, reaching it in August ; and on reflection they sent a written intimation to the Land Office when near the run. Believing that they were in secure possession of the run, they proceeded to make those improvements which were essential to the working of it, such as building stockyards and bridges, sawing timber, cultivating land, &c. For some months they were thoroughly occupied in this way, and did not think of taking out their license. On the 27th November, 1856, they applied for their license, and in answer received a circular-letter from the Land Office, dated 14th January, 1857, stating that, as their Run was likely to be included in the line of country to be set apart for sale in two thousand-acre blocks, under the terms of the Land Sales and Leases Ordinance, (which Ordinance did not receive the assent of the Governor until 24th February, 1857) the Superintendent had ordered that no licenses should be given for Runs in that part of the country, consequently no license would be given to them, and they were recommended to look out for country elsewhere. In June they received a letter from the Land Office, dated 27th May, informing them that their Run was included in the country for sale in 2000-acre blocks, consequently they could not get it. In July they had a further communication from the Waste Land Board, in which they were threatened with the penalties incurred by unauthorised occupation of Waste Lands of the Crown. N.B. — The documents in proof will be produced at the proper time, as well as details of, and reference to, the cases of other settlers who have equally suffered from the oppression of the Waste Land Board. The above example is sufficient for the present. Appendix B. No. 1. Waiopai, 27th June, 1857. We, the undersigned, hereby certify that certain sections were never chained nor pegged off, viz., those belonging to Thomas Rowan, John Oughton, James Drummond, Alexander M'Master, Alexander Bethune, Thomas Ferguson, Garey & Hamilton, Alexander Cook, and Basil Muter, though they were triangulated by Mr. Garvie ; consequently the occupants did not know their boundaries, and great !