SUNDAY ISLAND NOT SOLD

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 11

SUNDAY ISLAND NOT SOLD

DENIAL BY GOVERNMENT “DEPARTMENT KNOWS NOTHING.” STORY OF ISLAND’S SETTLEMENT. Wellington,. February 24. : Sunday. Island is.' still the property pi. the New Zealand Government-No transaction involving the purchase of the island has been agreed to, or even-con-sidered. It was stated in a cable message from Sydney that Dr. A, J. Ross, of Brisbane, had bought the island.outright, but from'inquiries made i.n official circles it is obvious that the statement is incorrect. .. ' ' A Sydney cable message on Monday said that the “Sunday Guardian” had stated that a Brisbane , A. J. Ross, had bought outright Sunday Island,, and that ho intended to settle it with 14 families, including 12- from. New Zealand, and, further, that he ; intended to buy a schopner in Sydney- thii week. ■ ■■; ■' ' “The department's not leasing or disposing of any part of the island, and knows nothing of the, matter,” said an official of the Lands Department,, when his attention .was drawn to ;the message from Sydney. “There has been' np £uch transaction. With the exception of:; the 275 acres of freehold property the island is all Crown land. The original owner of the , freehold block, a man named . Roll, is dead- and the latest advice we. hajvi received is that it is now owned by a man named Parker, pf Suffolk, England. The message states that the island ihaa been purchased outright, biit that .it is. quite' incorrect. The only land that' could be purchased is the freehold block, and you could hardly-settle 14 families" on that area.' If the 275 .acres' have bc6n disposed of it looks as if someone has sold the doctor a ‘pup.’” AN. ISOLATED PORTION. * J Sunday Island is; the' principal; island in the Efermadecs Group. It. is : 600 miles distant from Auckland, and' lies a little more than. half-way to Tonga, but 100 miles to the eastward of the steamer route to that place. It i.S; 300 miles eastward of the steamer route to Fiji and 150 westward of-the steamer r.oute from Auckland to Rarotonga. The only possible means of communication with the island at present is by the‘Government ; motor vessel Maui Pomare, which passes elose by Sunday Island on. her periodic trips to Niue Island.

The area of the island is roughly 7475 acres, and with the exception of 275’ acres of freehold the land is all Crown land under the jurisdiction of the Lands Department. Sunday Island isl2o miles' in circumference, roughly triangular in shape, and at the highest point -1723 feet above sea' level. It is rugged? and broken over a large extent of its? face, the exception being the few places covered with forest. The soil everywhere is very rich, being formed by the? composition of a dark, coloured pumice.ous tuff and a black andesitic lava, with which is mixed a fine vegetable mould.

The great luxuriance and the richness of the vegetation bears witness to the excellence of the soil, which is eyeryi where marked by the same rich loam* except where it is destroyed by. ( .erup« tions, and where the many steep:cliffs exist. The chief drawback to successful Cultivation, however, is the absence- of accessible water supplies, and although three of the four lakes on the island ar« fresh they are so difficult of approach as to be practically useless. ~..,? For several years, from 1878 onwards* a Air. Bell and his family lived on the island. Air. Bell claimed the island, by; right of settlement, but the New Zea* land Government refused to agree to this.' It gave him, however, the- free* hold of a block of 275' acres near, the centre of the island. Air. Bell subs»» quently abandoned the block and return-i ed to New Zealand. He, is now fiead, and the records of the ' Lands Department credit a Air. Parker, of Suffolk, England, as the owner, the assumption being that Air. Bell sold the land to Mr. Parker, gave it to him, or left it. to him as a beneficiary under his will. How it. came into Air. Parker’s possession i? . not exactly known. • ■ '■ > About five years, ago there was an ill-starred venture, of three Auc|4and people, who settled on Sunday Island. A Crown grant was obtained in 1926 by a Mr. C. H. Parker, who took possession in November of that year. He died, from blood poisoning, - it»is believed, early in the following .year/ 1927, and on the next trip, jiqrth' of the Government steamer, then the Hineiqoa, Mr. Parker’s two companions were rescued and brought back to Auckland, glad to get .away from their isolated . island home. Since then the island had bee? unoccupied. .. . ■