✨ Land Purchase Report
84
as authorised in your letter of the 25th ultimo; that is, that the total purchase-money should be two thousand five hundred pounds, one thousand pounds of the said amount to be immediately paid to the natives, and the remaining fifteen hundred pounds to be paid in three subsequent equal annual instalments, falling due on the 15th day of May in each year.
Attached to the deed there is a plan showing the probable extent of the purchase and the position of the native reserves. A more accurate map will be furnished when Mr. Park has completed a contemplated survey of the interior of the Rangitikei river.
From the desire of the natives to possess the whole of the land between the Turakina and Wangaehu rivers, I considered it advisable to acquiesce in their wishes, as the place is peculiarly adapted from its well-defined natural boundaries for a reserve, and from its extent will also render it a sufficient and desirable situation for the eventual settlement of the whole tribe. There are already several villages and native cultivations on this reserve, and the chief of Turakina informs me, that in the course of a few years he will dispose of the Turakina reserve of eight hundred acres, as he intends at my suggestion, to make immediate preparations to settle between the rivers.
The right of eel-fishing, in such places as may not be drained by European settlers, the village and cultivation, including sixteen hundred acres of land at Parewanui, Kawana Hakeki’s burial ground, fifty acres near some fishing lagoons colored red on the map, the right of cultivation till March eighteen hundred and fifty-two on some spots of land opposite Awahou, and a similar right for a period of three years on two places on the north bank of the Wangaehu, comprehend the whole of the native reserves within the purchase, as specified in the deed of sale, which further provides that the Government have a right of constructing a public road or roads through all the native reserves.
Mr. Park, whose experience as a surveyor renders him most efficient in discharging his duties, is at present engaged in making maps for the natives, which with copies of the deed I shall leave with the chiefs, as records of reference, in which the arrangements now concluded are detailed.
The Ngatiapa are as yet a rude, uncultivated race, whose improvement as a tribe has hitherto been much neglected, consequently settlers may have some little difficulties to contend with in their first intercourse with them, but the cession of their country, increasing knowledge, and ameliorated circumstances, will soon bring about a perfectly amicable understanding.
I am glad to observe that many of the chiefs in this neighbourhood congratulate the Government on the successful termination of the present purchase, notwithstanding the opposition evinced by various tribes when the negotiations were first undertaken.
I have the honor to remain,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
Donald McLean,
Inspector of Police.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, &c., &c.,
Wellington.
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New Munster Gazette 1849, No 16
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Report on Purchase of Rangitikei District
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🗺️ Lands, Settlement & Survey21 May 1849
Land purchase, Ngatiapa tribe, Rangitikei district, Wanganui
- Donald McLean, Inspector of Police
- Donald McLean, Inspector of Police