LINZ Project - DATABASE
INTERPRETING THE DATABASE
The resulting database printout is presented in a similar format to the layout of the original "I" books, with the addition of two columns for the names of the previous and existing owners of the section, the information obtained from the "R" books.
The columns used in the database are:
| SectionNo | Is the Section Number given to each section by Surveyor Frederic Alonzo Carrington on his survey map of the township. |
| IbookNo | Is the "I" index book reference which contains all the transactions for the section in the form I3 169 means page 169 of book I 3. |
| InstmNo | Is the sequential instrument number given to each transaction by the Lands and Deeds Office. |
| InstmNatur | Is the nature of the Instrument. Ie. The type such as a Crown Grant, Conveyance, Re-Conveyance, Mortgage, Section Exchange, Last Will, or Probate. |
| InstmDate | Is the date of the Instrument. |
| Recorded | Is the reference for the Book in which a copy of the instrument has been made eg R4 109, being page 109 of book R4. |
| SurnameFm | Is the surname of the previous owner of the land. |
| ForenameFm | Are the forename/s of the previous owner of the land. |
| SurnameTo | Is the surname of the new owner of the land. |
| ForenameTo | Are the forename/s of the new owner of the land. |
| Notes | Are any notes relative to the transaction. |
ERRORS
It is accepted that a manual record keeping system would unfortunately contain human errors. In the 1960's, when the Post Office still had manual telephone exchanges and all the toll records were manually generated and the billing was carried out by hand, I can remember the clerical supervisor explaining to me that a 2% error rate was accepted in such manual processing operations.
Since the original Deeds system was a manual operation it is expected that errors would occur. Our transcribing team were to come across many errors that were already inherent in the Deeds system. The most obvious error encountered was an incorrect "R" book reference obtained from the "I" books. This became apparent when going to find a copy of the instrument in the "R" books, to find that the given reference was not the correct instrument and in fact had no connection with the section being transcribed whatsoever. Perhaps the Lands and Deeds clerk was distracted at the time he was processing this transaction, or was interrupted and when he returned to his work mistook where he was and entered the wrong "R" reference. Our team soon came to understand the system and figured that they could sometimes use the instrument sequential number to work around the error, but unfortunately this did not always work.
As well as the already existing errors, it would be understandable that our team of transcribers and data entry people would also make errors. In a project such as this, it would be normal to check the final printout of data against the original records. Unfortunately as we had only just enough time to transcribe the data before the LINZ Office closed and the Deeds books were transported to Hamilton, we were unable to do all the checking that should have been done. It could realistically be expected that an error rate of over 4% may exist in the final project data.
INTERESTING POINTS
During the process of completing this project the following points of interest were noted by our volunteers:
1) Original Crown Grantee's did not live in New Zealand
It was noted that quite a high percentage of the original Crown Grantee's did not live in New Plymouth or indeed in New Zealand. From reading the grant documentation it became clear that persons who had supported the Plymouth Company, I presume by way of some form of investment, were repaid by being granted a section in the new township of New Plymouth. It was also apparent that these persons did not necessarily on sell their new asset immediately, as some retained ownership of the land for more than one generation before selling it to someone who wanted to actually settle on the land. It was noted that there was a large proportion of such grants to persons in Halifax, Yorkshire, in return for their support they had given to the New Plymouth Company.
2) Large number of Bankruptcies
Transcribers quite frequently noted that a mortgage turned out in fact to be a conveyance. This occurred when the land owner defaulted on the mortgage repayments and the person (Not necessarily a Bank in those days) who had supplied the finance seized the land. The court then awarded the ownership to the mortgagor. It did seem to happen more often then, than it appears to do now days.
3) Women held the title to the land
It was noted that towards the end of the period of interest, a high percentage of the land owners were women. In discussion with LINZ staff and others it was confirmed that this was quite common at that time. It appears that New Zealand led the way with legislation enabling women to take possession of property. Several Acts were passed from the late 1860's onwards, progressively giving women the right to own property in their own name. These laws gave women protection from having their assets being sold off, frittered away, or claimed by husbands who had previously deserted them. This appears to have been a real problem from the 1870's through to the 1890's when men often had to travel around the country in search of work. After being away from the family for months or even years at a time, they could return with a new partner in tow, and seize the home forcing the former wife and children onto the street. By putting property in their wife's names, men were also able to protect the assets from creditors and immediately provide security to their families if they died while working away from home.
4) Taking of sections by Superintendent of the Province of New Plymouth
On 20th August 1858, some seven hundred and fifty five sections, towns reserves "A" through "Y" comprising some seventy acres, sixteen perches and all streets and squares totaling some 229 acres were taken under the "Public Reserves Act 1854" by the Superintendent of the Province of New Plymouth. It appears that quite a large proportion of these sections had been purchased prior to 1858 and held in trust awaiting the process. Although the transaction document contained on page 63 of "R" book number 2 and indexed as "I13 159", states the land was taken "to be held as an endowment for Public Schools and General Education", the land was in fact used for various purposes. This including realigning roads, the enlargement of the park that Carrington had shown on his 1842 survey map as "Victoria Park" and now known as Pukekura Park, the provision of the Te Henui Cemetery and a school, now the Boy's High School. A transcription of R2 63.