" may be required to pull down his house at
" his own expense, all that the Government is prepared to do is to compensate the
" individual for the ground, taken from him
" to which he can show a proper title, and
" for the expense to which he is put in
" removing his habitation to the substituted.
I must also observe that transfers of land were merely by letter, and as the maps then in existence were very incorrect, a proper registry could not be kept.
Mr Gordon, on reporting on the case in No.64 of 6th June, 1844, says Mr. Burd "has built far beyond the limits of these Lots Nos. 8 and 9, and was repeatedly warned by my directions" and further for Colonial Secretary's letter No. 149 of July to Mr. Burd, he states, (in consequence of the knowledge that portions of the premises were encroachments on Government property), that "the compensation to be ultimately awarded to you will depend upon the question of title which is not referred to them (the arbitrators) for consideration.
By no means was Mr. Burd's title to the ground satisfactorily proved; there was no evidence that the whole of the land claimed was ever given over to him, Sir Henry Pottinger decided that Mr. Burd should be remunerated for so much of the ground to which he was entitled, which is more than half of what he now occupies."
To show this as clearly as possible, I overlayed the plan of the lots and the original streets as laid down by Lieutenant Sargent, and added my survey of the existing houses and boundaries in the neighbourhood, by which it appeared that in the first instance even Mr. Oswald