SUNDAY ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3148, 15 July 1914, Page 54

SUNDAY ISLAND.

THE QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP. MR BELL’S CLAIM DISPUTED. AUCKLAND, July 9. The claim of Mr Thomas Bell to the ownership of Sunday Island will probably be disputed by several other parties. Mr Bell and his family have resided continuously on the island since 1878, but several residents in Auckland believe that they can, establish claims to share the land, on the f round that their ancestors were earlier inabitanrs of Sunday Island. Three people are believed to be the only surviving relatives of Mr James Reed and his wife, who went to Sunday Island in 1837, and resided there until 1845. They are two daughters (Mrs J. Cooke and Mrs Gee), both of whom live at Northcote, and Mr N. von Sturmer, their nephew, and grandson of the late Mr Reed. According to documentary records in possession of Mr von Sturmer, a statement was given by the late Mrs Reed in Auckland on 13, 1866, regarding the family residence in Sunday Island She stated that in 1836 Mr Reed was in charge of a whaling station in Queen Charlotte Sound, and they were there married by Captain Bateman, of the ship Cheviot. In the following year Mr Reed and his wife were taken with some Maori “slaves” to Sunday Island hv Captain Bateman. They returned to New Zealand in the ship Montezuma in 1845, and lived in Auckland subsequently. The mother of Mr von Sturmer was born on Sunday Island. He states that according to the account he has heard of that early settlement there was no sign of European occupation found by Mr Reed, except one pig, which was presumed to have been the survivor of some liberated by Captain Cook Several goats were acclimatised by Mr Reed, and he also planted bananas and oranges, securing stocks from Pitcairn Island. The family lived in Denham Bay. A Captain Baker and a Samoan woman whom he married were also early residents on the island, and several of their descendants are now living in New Zealand. „ .