Ledger A — the Bledisloe National Trust land
The 18 November 1932 Trust Deed identifies the donors as registered fee-simple proprietors of approximately 1,002 acres, being Lots 2, 3, 5 and 6 on deposited plan 24475, parts of Allotments 4 and 6, Waitangi Parish. [1932 Act ↗]
The deed declares the trust purposes and gives the Board power to accept an assurance or otherwise procure that land to be vested in it. The 9 December Act then incorporated the trustees as a body corporate. [1932 Act ↗]
Status: donor-owned founding parcel → intended National Trust property. The next title-ledger step is the actual registered assurance into the incorporated Board. [1932 Act ↗]
Ledger B — 13 acres of closed roads
Section 8 of the 1932 Act is materially different. It directs the District Land Registrar to issue, free of cost, a certificate of title to the Board for an estate in fee simple in approximately 13 acres 4.8 perches of closed roads. Those roads had been closed by proclamation dated 12 October 1932 and are identified on PWD plan 84674. [1932 Act ↗]
This land did not enter the Trust because the Bledisloes owned and donated it. Parliament supplied the title mechanism. [1932 Act ↗]
Status: statutory direction to issue title → Trust purposes. Because section 8 uses “empowered and directed”, this is stronger than a mere discretionary authority, but the land-register entry is still the best evidence of the resulting title. [1932 Act ↗]
Ledger C — 40 acres taken by the Crown for historic purposes
Schedule 3 identifies approximately 40 acres 10.8 perches taken for historic purposes by Crown proclamation dated 9 July 1932, plan PWD 84155. [1932 Act ↗]
Section 9 did not simply vest this parcel in the Board. It imposed a condition: the Board, or somebody on its behalf, first had to pay into the Public Account the amount Treasury considered represented the Crown's acquisition cost. Only then could the Governor-General authorise the registrar to issue a fee-simple title to the Board. [1932 Act ↗]
Status: acquired by Crown → transfer authorised conditionally → actual payment, warrant and title still to be proved. [1932 Act ↗]
Ledger D — another 30 acres taken in September 1933
The 1934 Reserves and other Lands Disposal Act adds another distinct parcel. It records approximately 30 acres 2 roods 30.75 perches in Waitangi Parish taken for historic purposes by proclamation dated 8 September 1933, plan PWD 85739. [1934 Act ↗]
Section 17 authorised the Governor-General, by warrant, to authorise the registrar to issue a fee-simple certificate of title to the Board free of cost, subject to the National Trust purposes. [1934 Act ↗]
Status: Crown-acquired historic land → statutory vesting authority → warrant/title still to be proved. [1934 Act s 17 ↗]
The contemporary map confirms the parcels were being tracked separately
A National Library catalogue description of a 1935/36 cadastral map records colour-coded boundaries distinguishing Bledisloe donor land, Waitangi Endowment land, closed roads vested in the Board, and historic-purpose lands taken under PWD 84155 and the later 1933 taking. Importantly, the catalogue calls some of those historic-purpose lands “proposed to be vested” in the Board. [National Library map ↗]
That supports the control rule for this ledger: statutory authority to vest cannot be silently converted into a completed title transfer. [1935/36 cadastral map ↗] [1932 Act ↗] [1934 Act ↗]
Opening balance — not yet a single number
We can therefore identify at least four National Trust land pathways by 1934: [1932 Act ↗] [1934 Act ↗] [1935/36 map ↗]
~1,002 acres — donor fee-simple parcel.
~13 acres — closed roads, title directed free of cost.
~40 acres — Crown historic-purpose acquisition, transfer conditional on repayment.
~30.7 acres — Crown historic-purpose acquisition, later warrant-based vesting authority. [1932 Act ↗] [1934 Act ↗]
These figures must not simply be added and labelled “the Trust owned this much”. Ownership must be closed parcel by parcel from the register. [1932 Act ↗] [1934 Act ↗]
Sources: Waitangi National Trust Board Act 1932, deed, ss 8–9 and Schedules 2–3; Reserves and other Lands Disposal Act 1934, s 17; Department of Lands and Survey annual report 1933; National Library cadastral map catalogue, ca 1935–36.