SUNDAY ISLAND.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 133, 11 July 1914, Page 13

SUNDAY ISLAND.

OWNERSHIP DISPUTED.

Press Association.

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 laud on the ground that their ancestors were earlier inhabitants of Sunday Island. Three people are believed to be the only surviving relatives of Mr James Bee'd and his wife who went to Sunday Island in 1837 and resided there until 1845. They are tAvo daughters, Mrs 3. Cooke and Mrs Gee, both of whom live at Northcote, and Mr N. Von Stunner, their nephew and grandson of the late Mr Reed. According to a documentary record in possession of Mr Von Stunner, a statement was given by the late Mrs B,ead in Auckland on April 13, 1866, regarding the family's residence on Sunday Island. She stated that in 1836 Mr Reed was in charge of a whaling station in Qneen 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 by Captain Bateman. They returned to New Zealand in the ship Montezuma in 1845, and lived in Auckland. Subsequently the mother of Mr Von Stunner was born on Sunday Island. He states that according to the accounts he has heard .oiLthat 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 the stocks from Pitcairn Island. The family lived in Denham Bay. A Captain" Baker and a Samoan woman whom he married were the only other early residents on the island, and several of their descendants are now living in New Zealand.