Bell, Francis Dillon (Sir) 1822-1898 :[Map of the lower North Island] / Francis Dillon Bell, Comm[issione]r for W[estern] District. [1851 or 1852?]

Map from a line across north of Taranaki, taking in Lake Taupo and northern Hawke Bay, down to Cape Palliser. Many inaccuracies of scale and detail. Several areas marked in red, including Wellington, Petone, Somes Island, Entry Island (i. e. Kapiti) "Hatfield" (i.e. Hadfield at Otaki) a "Town" on the "River Wairarapa" with a reference to Brees' report of 1844, a pa north of this with a path marked to Apiti Fall and Awapanui on the Tukituki River in Hawke Bay.

On the verso are notes about sales of land and land granted in compensation, Wellington, by order of council 27 June 1851.

According to History of Hawke's Bay by James Gordon Wilson et al (facsim edition, 1976), p. 157, the map shows the Ngaruroro Stream (here called Awapuni, as a large tributary of the Tukituki River (in Hawke's Bay). It also shows Stokes' journey to the Wairarapa in Dec 1841 and Kettle's track trhough the Manawatu Gorge to the sources of the Ruamahanga and through the Wairarapa back to Wellington in May and June, 1842.

See Turnbull Library Record no. 8, Nov 1951, p. 3-13, where this map is listed on p. column 2, as fr 38.

Inscriptions: Recto - bottom left - Francis Dillon Bell, Commissioner for W[ellington] District. Other inscriptions passim, including dates ranging from 1844 to 1852.

Quantity: 1 watercolour(s).

Physical Description: Ink and watercolour on blue laid paper 320 x 196 mm

Provenance: Before being acquired by Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull, the volume belonged to W H Burnand.

Transfers: Originally tipped in to the front of of Alexander Turnbull's copy of The New Zealand Journal, Vol 12, 1852, shelved in the Reference Room until 1989. Other similar maps of early settlements remain in the volume..