REPORT

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 176, 28 June 1859, Page 2

REPORT

Of the.Select Committee appointed-to investigate the Stopping up of the Public Road through Section No. 61, Waimea West. The Committee, appointed -to examine into the circumstances relative tp the stopping up of a public road through Section .61, Waimea West, beg to lay before the Council the following facts as tbe result of their investigations:— Your Committee find, that in the year 1842, David Monro, Esq., became the owner of Section 61, Waimea West, it having been selected for him by an agent, with a New Zealand Company's land order. The section is laid out on tlie three maps in the office (made before the year 1851), having a public road through it, and was understood to contain fifty acres. When the re-adjustment of the land questions took place, in accordance with the resolutions of July, 1847, Dr. Monro threw "up ail his land, with the exception of his town acre, receiving scrip in exchange ; and on the Bth Marcli, 1851, claimed, with a portion of this scrip, to purchase Section 61, Waimea West, which he had previously thrown up. In the month of August, 1851, the New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Ordinance was passed at Wellington by the Legisla ive Council, and under that ordinance the Hon; C. A. Dillon, then Land Commissioner, and John Poynter, Esq., were appointed joint Commissioners to examine into, and determine claims; and in Claim Book A., your Committee find Dr. Monro's claim signed, as admitted by John Poynter, as Crown Solicitor. Your Committee have had produced before them the Crown grant to Dr. Monro of the said section, issued 10th March, 18o3; likewise the register copy of the said grant, and in the plans attached to both, there is no road laid out through any-p'art of the section. Mow, although the Crown grant was not issued until the 10th March, 1853, your Committee find from other documents that the grant in question was lying in the Colonial Secretary's office, Wellington, for the Governor's signature, in the month of April, 1852, and must therefore have been prepared previous to that date. Tlie Crown grant, as issued on the 10th March, 1853, bears the signature of Sir George Grey, and the initials C. A. D., being those of the Hon. 0. A. Dillon, then Land Commissioner. Accordingly, the road in question must, have been stopped up previous to the preparing of the grant, and probably in the end of the year 1851. , , From the evidence taken by tlie Committee, it appears that in the year 1851, prior to the making out of the Crown grant, when the Hon. C. A. Dillon was Commissioner of Crown Lands, Dr. Monro called his attention to. the circumstance that Section 61, Waimea West, was under size, and also to the fact that the roads in connection with the section were not laid out iv. the manner most advantageous to the public—that the road in question was a continuation of the laid out Moutere-road, but could be of. no use to the public, as it passed through ground which, when the Waimea River was only moderately flooded, was streamed over by the water, and was broken into deep hole, and water-courses, and strewed with logs and driftwood left there by the floods. In consequence of these representations, an 4 from the.local knowledge possessed by the Commissioner himself, the space of ground occupied by the; road was given to Dr. Monro, to assist in making his section nearer its intended size. By a survey of the section, made by Mr. Goulter in 1853, reckoning the road as part of Dr. Monro's acreage, and also another piece of two acres given to him at the same time, the section is found to he still only forty-eight acres one rood. ; Your Committee therefore find that it was in consequence of Dr. Monro's representations, and by powers vested sn.them by clause 13, appended to this report,,of .the New Zealand Company's Land Claimants Ordinance, that the Commissioners under that ordinance did, previous to issuing the Crown grant of Section 61, Waimea West, shut up the road running through it altogether, and threw the ground occupied by it into the section.

Your Committee are of opinion, that the Commissioners were warranted, by clause 13 of the . said ordinance, in altering or stopping-up any road; but they consider that the future require-: ; ments of the district and of the public*'generally1 . were not sufficiently attended to hy these Comniissioners—inasmuch as they did not avail■themselves of the full powers then vested in them, to provide another road in lieu ofthe one stopped up. . From the evidence, however, given to the Committee, it appears that the public have hitherto suffered no inconvenience from this omission, as the adjoining lands have been till lately unfenced; and that, moreorer, had a road been made as laid down in the original section, it would be liable to be constantly flooded and destroyed by the river, which, breaking its banks at the southern end of Section 62, floods all the low land, and returns again to the river about halfway down Section 56. Any road made between the points where the streams break over and return again, would he liable to be destroyed, rendered unfit for traffic, and could only be made in the first instance at very considerable expense. Your Committee would further state, that although for ten years the road, as laid out, was practically open to the public, still they fiud from those living in the neighborhood, that it was seldom, if ever used. Your Committee are therefore decidedly of opinion that the road in question was stopped up under proper legal authority, and that the transaction was in every respect perfectly fair and regular; and your Committee cannot discover a shadow of foundation for any imputation upon the honor or good faith of auy of the persons concerned in it.