Enclosure.
COPY.
Honourable Colonial Secretary,
'Rec2
C.O.
6492
A
Seat 27 FEB
231
I attach the further letter of the Commodore of the 2nd. instant, and the revised plan of the proposed Admiralty reserve accompanying that letter.
2. The whole of the land shewn in the revised tracing, is claimed as private property under registered deeds and in some cases by prescription, but a detailed survey on a scale say, of 25 inches to the mile is necessary before the claims and values can be exactly fixed.
3. The foreshore and part of the bed of the sea, and fishing rights have likewise been claimed, and the deeds relating to the claims registered, except in the case of one claim, the deeds of which are now being translated. I have given verbal notice to the claimants that all rights below high water mark are vested in the Crown alone, with the possibility of an exception as regards the fishing claim. I understand the question of the validity of these deeds will be submitted to the Courts for decision, unless the Government will admit their validity without trial. The claimants to the foreshore attach enormous value to their claims, which, however, extend some distance to the North East of the proposed Admiralty Reserve.
4. As regards the proposed Reserve above high water mark it appears to embrace the four mountain quarries one of which is solid granite and will not be exhausted in 1000 years and the following particulars and figures may be useful