PETITION OF PHILIP LLOYD FRANCIS AND OTHERS, SETTLERS IN THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, TO THE WEST OF RIVER WAIAU.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1863 Session I, G-02

G.—No 2.

PETITION OF PHILIP LLOYD FRANCIS AND OTHERS, SETTLERS IN THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, TO THE WEST OF RIVER WAIAU.

I'UKSIIiNTKD 20th NOVEMBER, 1563, AND ORDERED TO BE PKiJSTKI) NOV. IMBER 25th, ]>*:.

AUCKLAND: 1863.

G.— No. 2

PETITION.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF NEW ZEALAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

The Petition of the undersigned, resident Stockowners and others, in the Province of Otago, on the Western and North Western frontier of the Province of Southland, Humbly Sheweth, — That your Petitioners, although residing in the Province of Otago, are, owing to the extreme distance of their district from Dunedin, virtually excluded from all participation in the prosperity flowing in upon Otago, the communication with the capital being tedious and uncertain, and iu the winter, to a certain extent, hazardous. That the district in which your Petitioners reside, from its peculiar position, outlying all inhabited portions of Otago by many miles, and separated in a great degree from that Province by a broad strip of the Province of Southland intervening, and from the great distance before mentioned, compel them involuntarily to a frequent infraction of the laws laid down for the management of Stock, especially of those relative to the Inspection of Sheep, Ac. That, in preference to taking matters of dispute, &c, for adjudication to Dunedin where such matters must necessarily be decided, your Petitioners are often compelled to suffer loss, as the least of two evils. That the only regular and reliable postal communication is from Invercargill, to which place, from its greater proximity, all wool and other produce has always been taken for disposal ; the distance from Invercargill to the most outlying portion of the district in which your Petitioners reside is only ninety miles, while from Dunedin the shortest route is one hundred and seventy-one miles. That, seeing that all business is transacted by your Petitioners in Invercargill, and that if not integral, the district is virtually a portion of the Province of Southland, and that greater facilities would be afforded your Petitioners ; your Petitioners would respectfully request your Honourable House to include the district in which they reside, within the Province of Southland, by a reconstruction of its boundaries. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, Philip Lloyd Francis, Hodge Brothers, H. Hawkwoith, Robt. W. Aitkin, Morton and Rogers, Freeman R. Turpin, John Howell, Low and McGrigor, White Brothers Hawkinson Brothers. Von Tunzelmann Brothers,