The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 49, 28 April 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1863.

There appears to be a very general impression abroad that by some means or otber a certain municipal body is "being done out of its rights'' in the matter of the Town Reserves ; that the Provincial Government of Southland, and the General Government, represented by Mr. W. Pearson, the Commissioner of the Waste Lands of the Crown, have banded themselves together for the purpose of depriving the people of their places of recreation. Even our contemporary, with a perseverance which does more credit to his heart than his head, waxes warm on the subject, and appears prepared to say all he can to show how utterly wrong it is to prevent the Town Board of Invercargill from having full control (on behalf of the people) over the Reserves. It is scarcely necessary for us to say that we fully recosjnise the necessity there is for such Reserves, or to call attention to the fact that of late years, iri cities where such provision for the wants of the inhabitants had not been made, large sums of money have been expended in the purchase of sites fur parks, public gardens, esplanades, etc. The principle is good, and we deprecate, in the strongest manner, any attempt to encroach on such spots, except for very cogent reasons. "We have heard^ it broadly stated that our rulers are inclined to commit this grievous error; and looking on the matter as of considerable importance, we have been at some trouble to ascertain what the real bearings of the case may be. On referring to the statement of Mr Thomson, Chief Surveyor of Otago, addressed to the Town Board of Invercargill, wheu that gentleman was in Southland a few months since, it will, we think, be pretty clearly seen that the authorities under whose direction this town was laid out, purposed that there, should be spots set apart which might eventually be laid out as promenades or gardens for the use of the townspeople. Mr. Thomson was in a position to speak with certainty on this point, and we therefore quote his words : —

It was thought advisable to make the gardens in the centre of the town, and the esplanades to front the harbor— the former would thus be very accessible to families, the latter would maintain a view of the shipping, besides being an excellent area for promenades, exercising grounds, cricket or golf matches — all of which are necessities in the country of our origin.

The Surveyor - General of New Zealand happened to visit the town of Invercargill nt the time I was laying it out, and he approved of the plan, and intimated bis approval to the Ota^o authorities; it was, consequently, advertised for selection and sale, with the publ ; c reserves plainly indicated to the purchasers. The map of the town passed examination both of the Executive and Waste Land Board of the province of Otago, with the full intention that the garden and esplanade reserves should be inviolate, and retained solely for the use of the settlers, their families and successors, and in this, I believe, they acted in good faith. It would be a serious reflection to think otherwise. In laying the plans before the public, with these reserves marked on them, it was my intention, as the designer, that the purchasers of sections at the same time should obtain vested rights in the spaces displayed to them as sites for exercise and recreation.

So far Mr. Thomson can speak with authority. We grant the existence of the reserves, but would ask, with all humility, on what ground does the Board rest its pretensions in regard to them ? There is nothing in the Port Chalmers and Invercargill Town Boards' Ordinance, 1859 — the act giving vitality to those municipal bodies— -which refers to the subject, if we except, perhaps, the second clause, which invests them, in a general way, with a power to " accept, take, and hold, for the benefit of the said town and the inhabitants thereof, any lands, buildings, hereditaments, goods, effects, or other property." That is all that is said in the Act which could give a color of a pretext to the idea that the Town Board is by right the guardian of the Reserves, and that clause merely confers a power if the Board becomes possessed of any property, and cannot be interpreted to mean that the Reserves are of necessity to be made over to it. Could no better authority be

produced than the foregoing, the wardensbip of these gardens and parks in prospcctu would have to go a-begging. Clause 5 of the same act is to the effect that " subject to the provisions herein contained, the said Town Boards of Port Chalmers and Invercargill respectively, shall have and may exercise similar powers and privileges in all respects to those by the afore -re*cited

Ordinance [an Ordinance to constitute a Public Board for the town of Dunedin, 1855] granted to the Town Board of Dunedin." On reference to the lati ter Ordinance, we can find nothing about Town Reserves mentioned. We know of no ordinance in which the Board is considered de Jure the guardian of the reserves, and shall now endeavor briefly to point out with whom does rest the legal responsibility. To some our remarks may appear superfluous, but we have heard men who, from their position, should be better informed, so gravely misstating facts, that it is as well that they should at once have an opportunity of setting themselves right. On turning to the "Public Reserves Act, 1854,'' of the General Assembly of New Zealand (assented to in September, 1854), we find that the Governor, with the advice of his Executive Council, may "grant to the Superintendent of each Province in New Zealand and his successors, all such estate and interest as Her Majesty now hath or may have in all or any of the lands within such Province, forming part of the demesne lands of the Crown, which shall have been at any time heretofore and now are or may hereafter be reserved or set apart for purposes of public utility within the said Province," with the exception of land reserved for military defence, the service of the General Government, or for the benefit of the natives. By the Public Reserves Act Amendment Act, 1862, power is given to the Superintendent and Provincial Council of any Province, to transfer by ordinance any such reserves vested in the Superintendent " to any Corporation Commissioners or other person or persons having corporate succession to be named in such act or ordinance in trust,' and under such restrictions as shall secure the full maintenance of the purposes for which such lands were reserved. Now, in the first place, the lavercargill Town Reserves have never been handed over to the Superintendent, and in the second place, it is evident from what we have quoted above, that even supposing that to have been done, it by no means follows that the Provincial Council would pass an act handing over the reserves to the Town Board. A? the matter stands at present, the reserves must be considered as waste lands of the CrOwn, and as such, are clearly under the management of the Chief Commissioner, nor does it seem to us that there is much danger of them not being permanently retained for the object for which they were originally set apart. The reserve on which the gravel dispute took place recently, has not, we believe, been properly surveyed "by authority up to the present day; at all events, it is not permanently marked on the record map in the Survey Office. Our space precludes any further comment, but if we have succeeded in lightening the darkness of some of our f'ellowtownsmen in even a small degree, our object is accomplished.