🔍 Archway-style Collections Search

Descriptions of Boundaries are generally a handwritten or typed interpretation of the decision contained in the Maori Land Court Minutes of the area of land to be partitioned. This sometimes included a sketch.

Under the Maori Land Court Rules the Court was required to notify the Chief Surveyor of all new partitions being created.

Copies of these were then provided to the surveyor via the Chief Surveyor along with an “Authority to Survey”.

If these descriptions have been signed by the Judge they can be treated as authoritative, however care must be taken if they have not and the Court Minutes should be referred to.

In South Auckland these Descriptions have been bound into books in numerical order. There are 74 volumes, with consecutive folio numbers starting with 1 in the first volume, running through to 15675 in the last volume.

The description of boundary books were no longer maintained after 1997 when there was no longer a mandatory requirement for the Court to advise LINZ of new partitions.

The folio reference for the description of boundary was noted on the face of the ML plan, and also indexed by block name in alphabetical indexes, first in volumes and later in a card index. This series comprises that card index for the South Auckland Land District.

Before an official Certificate of Title was issued, and earlier sometimes before a Crown Grant was issued for any land, all dealings, memorials and entries on that land were provisionally registered. This included certificates of the Director-General of Lands that purchase money had been paid, or an order of the Maori Land Court declaring that the land should be held in freehold tenure.

The certificates and orders were issued in duplicate, and the duplicate copies sent to the District Land Registrar in Auckland for binding into Provisional Registers.

Information given in the Provisional Registers for certificates of purchase included provisional register number (volume and folio or page number), name of provisional title holder, amount paid, area of land, legal description of land, signature of receiver of land revenue, cross-reference to the Certificate of Title register (or for the earliest certificates, Crown Grant register), and the signature of the District Land Registrar.

Information in the orders of the Native Land Court / Maori Land Court included provisional register number (volume and folio / page), cross-reference to Maori Land Court minute book, legal description of land, area of land, schedule of owners, details of the specific order over land (such as partition, subdivision, memorandum of transfer, memorials of ownership), and cross-reference to Certificate of Title register and folio, or again for earlier records, Crown Grant register and folio.

As the person seeking title was required to prove ownership of the land, evidence such as former title deeds are sometimes attached to the pages of the early registers.

The volume has an index at the front, by provincial trig number. Most of these trig numbers were used in multiple provinces.

The index shows provincial trig number, place, name of district (headed "Trig"), running number (red ink) and folio number (page).

There is a second index immediately after the first, which indexes minor stations by place name, giving folio [page] number.

Groups of entries are scattered throughout the volume, with a large number of blank pages in between. Each double page in the main part of the volume is headed with the name of the Province and Survey District, and then divided into columns, headed as follows:

Numbers: Tab [a single running number, in red, that begins at 1 with Mt Eden and continues through the volume]

Numbers: Station [This appears to be the number of the Trig within the district]

Place [e.g. Mt Eden; Henderson's Creek; Kauri Point]

Sides

Bearing

Convergence of meridian

Length

Height above sea, in feet

Distance on meridian

Distance on perpendicular

Latitude

Longitude

Reference pages: Angles

Reference pages: Means

Reference pages: Compilation

Note that some of the trigs appear to have been entered on the pages for the wrong District.

One item in this series is a typewritten register labelled "Old Trig Index", dating pre-1922 which is arranged alphabetically by Survey District. Trig details are recorded under headings: plan reference, Block and Survey District, surveyor, land appellation, traverse book reference.

The series also includes three bound volumes which give cadastral trig station number, name and coordinates - Meridional and Perpendicular, as well as height in feet. The trigs and their coordinate details are old cadastral, ie pre Geodetic 1949, though some geodetic values have been added. Volume 1 (item 514b) covers the southern part of the Auckland Land District, as far south as Taupo and Poverty Bay, while Volume 2 (item 514c) covers the northern part of the Auckland Land District. There is an index by Survey District in the front of each register, and Volume 2 also has a four page list of "Positions of new trigonometrical stations in relation to old station" in the front. Volume 2 has some fire damage on the edges of the first pages.

These volumes list trigs by Station number and / or name together with its meridian and perpendicular coordinates. Some trigs are noted in pencil as "destroyed". There are Meridional Circuit index maps at the front Volume 1 and on pages 79 and 100 showing different areas. Note that the coloured number on the Survey District pages matches the coloured number on the index maps.

The third volume (item 515a), not numbered into the sequence, covers North Auckland only, as far south as Drury. This volume also contains a list of trig plans in the North Auckland safe, and a handwritten list of Survey Office plans for the Borough of New Lynn, dated 1943. This volume has been annotated in red on several pages giving the new trig map number for Transverse Mercator coordinates - 1949 Geodetic datum.

Also in this series is item 515b, a register of information supplied by Army Survey Units during World War II. Similar to a traverse book, it contains diagrams of connections to survey marks from trig control points established by the Army Survey Unit, 1942. It comprises 31 diagram sheets, and was supplied to the Chief Surveyor by Lieutenant HG Hall, Registered Surveyor. Part 2 of this volume was supplied by the 1st Survey Troop NZA, 1943 and shows coordinates and heights of trig control points established by the Army Survey Unit in Paihia and Waipa-Maungaturoto and Russell areas. It also contains many plan diagrams, including a large tracing of a hand-coloured plan: "Inspection of subdivision of portion of Paremata-Mokau" Block surveyed for the Tokerau Land Board by CE Cooke in 1911, numbered 7391. This item has been rebound, and inside the front cover is stuck part of the previous cover which says "1A Inspection Traverses" which may possibly relate this item to the trig index in series 27200 but this is uncertain.

Item 515c is a foolscap index book which lists Survey Districts in the North Auckland Land District and lists the trig plan numbers (SO plans) associated with those districts, to approximately the mid-1930s judging by a note in the front of the volume. There is a list pasted into the front of the volume headed "Trig Plans not located in North Auckland Safe at 22.10.36".

Item 515d is a card-covered binder labelled "Minor Triangulation Index (SO Plans)", and it relates to the North Auckland Land District. It contains an explanatory note re the location of trig records, followed by information on coordinates for the Geodetic Datum 1949; a list of trigs from the Bay of Plenty Tellurometer Survey showing trig stations, national and Bay of Plenty coordinates and heights; a list of new trigonometrical stations in relation to old stations in Survey District order, with coordinates, showing sheet number; and then the main body of the item contains a page for each Survey District showing plan number, trig name, trig number, date it was established, coordinates, heights and other notes. Finally, another handwritten list of trigs in alphabetical order by Survey District has been tied into the binder at the back, and this sometimes shows the name of the surveyor as well as plan number, coordinates and other notes.

The following information isgiven in a sheet tucked inside the front cover of the Bench Mark Index Book:

Bench Marks

Background

A Bench Mark is a type of survey or engineering monument established primarily as a basis for origins of heights or levels. The surveyor on completion of his Precise Level traverse forwards to Head Office Computing Branch the information stipulated in Technical Circular 196. Final heights are adjusted in Head Office and recorded on N88 cards which are returned to District Offices for recording.

General

The various sources for location and numbering of Bench Marks are as follows:

Geodetic Levelling Bench Mark Lists

Bench Mark Index Book

Bench Mark Index (NZMS 177 Sheets)

Bench Mark Cards (N88 (see series 27235) and NZMS 2 Index)

Cadastral Record Sheets

Survey Plans

All these are under care of Safe Custodian

Stage 1 Action

On receipt of N88 cards from Head Office

Note Bench Mark Index Book

Plot marks onto NZMS 177 Sheets

Plot marks onto Cadastral Record Sheets

Eventually the surveyor fixes the Bench Marks in relation to existing Cadastral surveys and records the fixing on Survey Office plans. Copies of these plans are forwarded to Head Office after approval (by Section Draughtsman Statutory & Computing). N88 cards are then revised and returned to District Office.

Stage 2 Action

Record SO Plan on Cadastral Record Sheets and cross-reference in Bench Mark Index Book and on existing N88 card. When revised N88 cards are returned from Head Office file in appropriate position and destroy existing card.

Additional information in the front of the volume relates to Bench Mark numbering (Initial letters allotted to the whole of the Auckland Land District were originally A, B, C and D. When the two districts separated, North Auckland was allotted C and D while South Auckland was allotted A and B. The second letter in the two-letter combination can be anything except I or O. Numbers are issued by District Offices, and issued in the order in which Bench Marks are established, wherever they are located. Therefore, if a Bench Mark is destroyed the replacement is likely to belong to a different letter series.

Accordng to the 1892 Land Act, s.126:

"For... the construction or maintenance of roads and bridges leading to or opening up the land...there shall be handed over to the local authority having the control of roads in such district one-third of the price or value of the periodical payments and rental of all land disposed of on deferred payments under any Act, or on perpetual lease under any Act repealed by this Act, or on a lease in perpetuity under this Act, or under section eight of Appendix C of "The Land Act, 1885," or for occupation with right of purcbase under this Act..." Sections 127 and 128 of the same Act set out the duration of the payments and to which local body the money should be paid.

The volume in this series records the payment of these thirds on each leased section.

Each register page is divided in half vertically and provides the following information:

Section, Block and Survey District

Local Body (For this volume, always Waitomo County)

Lease number (sometimes several leases, and some are crossed out)

Selected (date)

Thirds @ £ [amount of money] half-yearly

Thirds Hypothecated [this sometimes shows the name of a specific local body loan - e.g. Pukearuhi Special Loan [date]; Matapara Loan [date]; Tauanui Loan [date[

Below this the half-pages are ruled in headed columns to show each payment. The headings are:

No [of payment, from 1 for each lease]

Date [of payment]

Amount credited to Local Bodies' Deposit Account

Date Amount Paid to Local Body [generally the same amount as the amount credited, except where the money has been accrued for some time and then the total deposited at a later date]

The only item so far located from this series is a bound collection of trig sheets. These cover the South Auckland Land District, known as the Auckland Land District when the index map at the front was printed in 1923. The sheets are indexed by location on the key map using a numerical key and alphabetically by Survey District name, and the trig maps show cadastral control marks and their names and references from the 1880s.

The trigonometric maps show the Trig Station number , distances in links (Meridian / Perpendicular), compass bearings and often also show height above sea level and the name of the location. The names of surveyors are also shown. Some of the maps have additional annotations.The entire Gisborne region is excluded from the index map but it appears in some of the trig maps, as part of the Gisborne region including Te Kaha was within the Auckland Land District until 1923.

Many of the trigs shown on the maps are included in the trig register, series 27199, where they can be located using the trig station number shown on the map together with the Survey District name.

This item is labelled 2A which suggests there are other map volumes covering different Land Districts.

Under Section 8 of the Native and Maori Land Laws Amendment Act 1902 "The Governor may from time to time, by Proclamation published in the Gazette and Kahiti, declare that any parcel or parcels of Maori land, whether or not such parcels form portions of several blocks, and whether or not such parcels are held by the owners under separate titles, shall be vested in the Council as a site for a Native township, and shall by the same Proclamation assign a name to such township".

Section 9 states "Upon a certified copy of the said Proclamation and an approved plan of the said township being deposited with the District Land Registrar of the district within which such township is situated, a certificate of title under "The Land Transfer Act, 1885", shall be issued to the Council in respect of the said parcel or parcels of land."

The Act goes on to say that the Maori Land Council is responsible for administering such townships for the benefit of the owners, with power to have the township surveyed, laying off streets, allotments and reserves; to make decisions on disputes over land in the township; to execute all instruments of alienation in its own name, including sale, lease, exchange, or othewise, to distribute any profits amongst the Maori owners, and other administrative duties.

Before an official Certificate of Title was issued, and earlier sometimes before a Crown Grant was issued for any land, all dealings, memorials and entries on that land were provisionally registered. This included certificates of the Director-General of Lands that purchase money had been paid, or an order of the Maori Land Court declaring that the land should be held in freehold tenure.

The certificates and orders were issued in duplicate, and the duplicate copies sent to the District Land Registrar in Auckland for binding into Provisional Registers.

Information given in the Provisional Registers for certificates of purchase included provisional register number (volume and folio or page number), name of provisional title holder, amount paid, area of land, legal description of land, signature of receiver of land revenue, cross-reference to the Certificate of Title register (or for the earliest certificates, Crown Grant register), and the signature of the District Land Registrar.

Information in the orders of the Native Land Court / Maori Land Court included provisional register number (volume and folio / page), cross-reference to Maori Land Court minute book, legal description of land, area of land, schedule of owners, details of the specific order over land (such as partition, subdivision, memorandum of transfer, memorials of ownership), and cross-reference to Certificate of Title register and folio, or again for earlier records, Crown Grant register and folio.

As the person seeking title was required to prove ownership of the land, evidence such as former title deeds are sometimes attached to the pages of the early registers.