Sunday Island

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 42, 10 July 1914, Page 5

Sunday Island

DISPUTE CLAIM FOR POSSESSION. OTHER ASPIRANTS IN AUCKLAND. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The chum of Mr. Thomas Bell to the ownership of Sunday Island will probably be disputed by several other parties. Mr. Bell and his family have re?cl?, d . Co " tim,oUi % on the island since 1870, hut several residents in Auckland believe that they can establish claims to a, share of the land, on the'ground that their ancestors were earlier inhabitants of Sunday Island. Three 'people arc believed to be the only surviving relatives of Mr. James Reed and his wife, who went to Sunday Island m 1837, and resided there until l«4a. They are two daughter, Mrs J Cooke and Mrs. Oec, both of whom live at Northcote, and Mr. N. Von Sturmer. their nephew, and a grandson of the late Mr. Reed. According to a documentary record in the possession of Mr. Von Sturmer a statement was given by the late Mrs Reed in Auckland on April 13, 1860, regarding the family's residence on Sunday Island. She stated that in 1836 Mr. Reed was in charge of a whaling station in Queen Charlotte Sound, and they were there married by Captain Bateman, of the ship Cheviot. In the following year Mr. Reed and his wife were taken with some Maori "slaves" to Sunday Island by Captain Bateman. They returned to New Zealand in the ship Montezuma in 1845, and lived in ; Auckland subsequently. The mother of Mr. Von Sturmer was born on Sunday Island. He states that according t'o the accounts he has heard of that early settlement, there was no sign of European occupation found by Mr. Reed, except one pig, which was presumed to have been the survivor of some liberated by Captain Cook. Several goats we'e acclimatised by Mr. Reed, and he also planted bananas and oranges, securing stocks from Pitcairn Island. The family lived in Denham Bay. Captain Baker and a Samoan woman, Whom he married, were also early residents on the island. Several of their descendants are row living in New Zealand.