A STRANGE STORY FROM WELLINGTON.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1519, 30 December 1878, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY FROM WELLINGTON.

[BY TELEGRAPH.] [rBOM THE COBBESPONDENT OF THE PBESS.J Wellington, December 23. Tho " Post " says that the Wellington Law Courts are likely to have before them a moat extraordinary dispute as to the title of a considerable extent of city land, some six or seven acres, at Pipitea Point, which for many years past have been occupied by some of our leading citizens. The claimant is named Moffatt. His father set!led in the colony before it was separated from New South Wales, and the present, claimant, who is about forty years of age, has spent nearly the whole of his life amongst the Wairarapa Natives. It is said that he is a chief among them, but whether that is so or not, ho is evidently a man of considerable influence, and is possessed of large blocks of land. He is married to a Native woman, and baa a half-caste family. Though, as might be expected, Moffatt is not an educated man, ho appears to possess a largo share of natural intelligence. He was some years ago sentenced to two years' hard labour for manufacturing powder for the Natives, and it is slated that he served a like time in Auckland gaol. His claim is based upon the alleged purchase by his father from the Natives of the land at Pipitea, tho boundaries of which he states were marked by " Trypots" such as whalers use. According to his own statement ho possesses Crown grants, issued to his father by the New South Wales Government and also by the New Zealand Government after this colony was separated from Now South Wales. When he came to town a short time since ho found an old woman who remembered the sale, and pointed out the ground as well as sho could. Ho got an iron "prod" made by a blacksmith and went carefully over the supposed boundaries, and he was at last rewarded by striking ono of the trypots, which had become embedded in the earth. If his tale is true, from this murk the other boundaries can easily be ascertained, as the Crown grant will, of eourpe, define the extent of the grant;. Moffatt further states that he has consulted several of the leading policitors of Wellington, and that they all advise him 'hat his claim is indisputable. The value of the property is, at a moderate estimate, £40,000.