PUBLIC PETITIONS A TO L COMMITTEE (REPORT OF) ON THE PETITION OF H.K. HOVELL, OF SUNDAY ISLAND, TOGETHER WITH EVIDENCE GIVEN BY CAPTAIN FAIRCHILD ON THE CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS ON SUNDAY ISLAND.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1890 Session I, I-01b

L—lb

1890. NEW ZEALAND.

PUBLIC PETITIONS A TO L COMMITTEE (REPORT OF) ON THE PETITION OF H.K. HOVELL, OF SUNDAY ISLAND, TOGETHER WITH EVIDENCE GIVEN BY CAPTAIN FAIRCHILD ON THE CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS ON SUNDAY ISLAND.

Brought up 31st July 1890, and ordered to be printed.

EEPOET. The petitioner alleges that, by the Surveyor-General's printed report on the Kermadec Islands, he was induced to become the lessee of Bun No. 7, Sunday Island; that he has since discovered the report to be exaggerated and misleading; and that, through his reliance upon the accuracy of the report, he has been involved in loss to the value of £850. He prays for payment of this sum. I am directed to report that, in the opinion of the Committee, the petitioner has no claim against the colony. 31st July, 1890. A. P. Seymour, Chairman.

EVIDENCE GIVEN BY CAPTAIN FAIRCHILD ON THE CONDITION OF THE SETTLERS ON SUNDAY ISLAND. Tuesday, 26th August, 1890. Captain Fairchild in attendance and examined. 1. The Chairman.] Can you give us any information as to the state in which certain persons are left at Denham Bay as regards provisions?— They are left in a very bad state, but it serves them right; it is their own fault. They only had 2cwt. of flour among thirteen of them. 2. You took a good many of them away, did you not? —I took off thirteen, and I left thirteen. When I found they were not all coming away, and that they were short of provisions, before leaving I called them all together, and told them that the Government had sent the boat to their relief; that if she went away without them there was no guarantee for her returning; that if they did not come away with me the fault of what might take place would be theirs ; but they said they would wait, in order to make the Government pay compensation. 3. But you did take some away?— Yes, I took thirteen, and left thirteen. 4. How much provisions do you say they had ?—Two hundredweight of flour ; but there were 15,000 mutton-birds. The prospect of living on mutton-birds is not perhaps very inviting, but there was no fear of their starving. 5. Do you propose to go there again in November?— Yes; we have depots for the relief of shipwrecked sailors on the uninhabited islands about there which we visit once a year. November will be the time for visiting them again. 6. Is there a possibility of their communicating with Mr. Bell on the other side of the island ? —Yes; there is a road, and they can communicate with Bell. Bell has promised to give them kumaras and potatoes. He has given them all they want. He told them when they wanted anything to come to his plantation. If the whole of them had remained behind there might be some difficulty; but now that the half of them have come away, I think those that remain can relyon the mutton-birds and Bell's kumaras and potatoes. 7. Then you do not think there is any danger of any of them starving?— They said to me when I was coming away, "Oh, we can hold out with the mutton-birds till you come again." But I told them, "If you do stop here it is your own fault." They said they would stop. 8. Is there good fishing there?— Yes; but it is a very stormy place. You could fish a good many more days of the year in New Zealand than you can there. There is one place where they can fish off the rocks. Besides, the island is full of birds other than mutton-birds ; they could live on these when they had done with the mutton-birds. 9. Bananas: have they bananas ?—Bananas, well, you think they arc good until you see the Fiji bananas. They cannot grow bananas; the land is not good enough. You may ask, "Then, how is it that Bell can grow kumaras ?" But the fact is that Bell has got the only bit of cultivable land there is in the place. The island is a pumice-stone bed, where it is impossible for a man tolive any longer than while he consumes the food he carries with him.

I.—lb

2

10. Then, you say that Denham Bay is useless? —It is worse than useless. I took a shovel and went all over it. I dug up samples of the ground, and brought them with me when I was coming away. The whole of it was pumice-stone ; it is worse than the sea-beach. 11. Mr. Allen.] Where did you bring the samples to ?—To Auckland. I showed these samples to the people who wanted to go there. But they said that Fairchild was evidently trying to get the whole of the sections of the land for himself. I told them I did not want them to abandon their-intention altogether, but that they should not take their wives and families with them. But in they all rushed, and now they are there they say they will make the Government pay. One fellow said he would stop there till he died, that he might have his action against the Government. 12. The Chairman.] Are the hill-sides bare? —No, but they are too steep; you can only pull yourself up and lower yourself by catching hold of the trees. If the trees were off the island it would be impossible to walk over it. It is the most hilly piece of ground that I have seen. But Denham Bay is like a table. Orange-trees and pines grow on the island, but as soon as they get big, and the roots strike into the pumice, the trees begin to die. There are orange-trees there ten years old, and they have not borne fruit yet. 13. Would it be adapted for vines ?—I do not think the ground is good enough. Mr. Bell has some vines on his little bit of ground. 14. Then, you reckon that Bell's piece is the only bit of ground fit to live on ?—The only one that a man could live on; and when Bell's family gets bigger he will want more. He has moved two or three times to get a piece of land. He was nearly starved when he first went there, and he would have starved in any other part of the island than where he is. It is simply a pumice-stone bed, except the little piece that Bell is on. 15. I see Mr. Percy Smith in his report says that there is a level flat of about a mile and threequarter's at Denham Bay; that about one-third of that has been cleared by the inhabitants: was that before these people went there ?—That was done by some people who lived there thirty years before. 16. Mr. Percy Smith says: "But it is now abandoned and covered with heliotrope"? —It was a man with two Samoan wives who went there some thirty years before. They worked the ground, and did manage to grow a few'potatoes, but of a very small class. That was the only kind of cultivation. But no white man could live there. These Samoan women, I believe, managed to get a few potatoes and kumaras of a very poor kind out of the ground. I went over the ground with Mr. Percy Smith. I have no doubt he is correct. 17. He examined the whole of the island?— Yes; he went over every yard of it. He was seven or eight days engaged at that. The place is covered with a sort of weed which, even as a weed, does not appear to grow very well. No one, I think, could live there except on the ground which Bell has. [Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, nil; printirj-g (1,300 copies), £I.'\

By Authority : Geobge Didseury, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB9o.