PETITION OF THE SETTLERS AND OTHERS RESIDING ON THE EAST BANK OF THE RIVER MATAURA.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1862 Session I, G-03

PETITION OF THE SETTLERS AND OTHERS RESIDING ON THE EAST BANK OF THE RIVER MATAURA.

G -No. 3.

PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND ORDERED TO BE PRINTED.

G—No. 3,

Unto the Honorable the Legislative Council of New Zealand, in Parliament Assembled: the Petition of the Settlers and others residing on the East Bank of the River Mataura, Humbly Sheweth— That your Petitioners have learned to their great disappointment that the river Mataura has been proclaimed to be the East boundary of the New Province of Southland, whereby the whole of this district is excluded from it. That this district, on the East bank of the Mataura is hemmed in on the East by a chain of mountains running from the coast for about forty miles inland, passable even for horsemen at two or three points only in that distance. That the communications with Dunedin are consequently uncertain, tedious, and inconvenient. That the estuary of the Mataura being difficult to enter and leave, the trade in it can be prosecuted to advantage only from some port in the neighbourhood, such as the Bluff or Invercargill. That the produce of this district, or nearly all of it, goes to Invercargill. That the country extending west from the Mataura to Jacob's River being a great plain for a long distance inland from the coast, there is a perfect facility of communication with Invercargill. Seeing then, that those physical characteristics give this district a community of commercial interests with the other parts of the district of Invercargill, while it has little or no common interest with Dunedin. We therefore pray that this district may be politically joined to the New Province, and that the boundary of the Province of Southland may be altered from the River Mataura : Eastwards, to a line nearly corresponding to the watershed, between the rivers Mataura and Molyneux, so as to include the country on the East bank and within the basin of the Mataura. The proposed line of boundary which we respectfully suggest is specified in detail below :— Beginning on the coast at Brothers' Point; thence by a right line to Black Horn ; thence by a right line passing through Bleak Hill to its point of intersection of the South-east boundary of run 251 ; thence by the South-east boundary of 251; to the "Cairn" at the source of Kawera ; thence by Kawera to its junction with Waipaihi ; thence by Waipaihi to the point of its intersection by the Northren boundary of Run 131 ; thence by the Northen boundary of Run 131 to the junction of Pukerau with Waikaka ; thence Northwards by Waikaka to its fork ; thence by the East branch to its source; thence by a right line to Wendon Hill; thence by a right line to Black Umbrella ; thence by a right line to White Umbrella ; thence by a right line to Rocky Mount; thence by a right line to the South end of Wakatipu Lake ; thence by a right line to Eyre Peak, there joining the boundary of Southland, as proclaimed in the '* New Zealand Gazette" of twenty-seventh March, 1861. And Your Petitioners will ever pray, &c, &c. George Peel, James Menzies, Daniel Sinclair, John Turnbull, John Anderson, William Dahl, John Macintosh, Hugh Cameron, Thomas Reynolds, jun. Julius Brukman, James Wybrow, Archibald McKay, John McLeod, Henry Andrew Walter Fisher, James S. Shanks, jun. Malcolm McLeod, Robert H. Shanks, Samuel Campbell, Alexander McNab, John Spalding, Duncan Menzies, John Campbell.