(1867) In the North of New Zealand about Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, a large number of the old land claimants find it impossible to establish themselves safely on their alleged purchases; and readily took advantage of the offer of the Government in 1845, by which their claims might be exchanged for Scrip-----at Govt. land Sales. Their purchases, in this way, became public property, and were to the extent of OOO acres, handed over by the present Government to the Province of Auckland, in 1867, for local administration. The true criterion of the fairness of a purchase, is the peaceable occupation of the land, by the buyer. In the majority of the cases alluded to, that occupation had not commenced; and the land is now in that peculiar position that it cannot safely be sold by the Province, or granted by the Crown. Save by the Missionaries, very little actual occupation of old claims has been taken by the purchasers; and the beneficial results of the legion of the rest of the old purchases is not equivalent to that of settlement of one District of Government acquired land. Taking, for instance, the Nova Scotia settlement at Whangarei, the system entailed on the Government an enormous amount of labour in the necessary investigations, attended with great expense, and resulting in universal discontent amongst the claimants; who, it must be confessed, were subjected for many years, to a course of treatment by the Government, that was neither wise, nor generous. The evil effects of the system - towards the buyer, in the first instance, and towards the Government; whose action unavoidably becomes entangled in the claims, is instanced in the case of Mr. Busby, in the North, and Mr. Green, in the South Island; in the one case resulting in an alleged public debt of £36,000 with 143,000 acres; and in the other, in a liability of an unknown extent, and of which it is only known that it was originally set forth as of 1,377,000. Even the Missionary purchases were not admitted to the extent claimed. Upon surveyors attempting, in 1854, to define the boundaries of the Kauaeranga purchases, the Chief of the place shook his tomahawk over the Revd. Mr. Lanfear, and the surveyor; and declared that no boundary line should be cut. At the instance of the occupant, himself, the survey had to be abandoned. In many cases where, after an investigation before a Commission, an award was made, peaceable occupation did not follow:- the evidence adduced having been that, of the sellers only the non-selling owners not having been summoned, or made acquainted with the occurrence of the investigation. The natives at Kororaraka saw the lands they had parted with for a few articles of trade, re-sold after several years, for large sums of money; and they became moody and discontented. It is a significant fact that the massacre of the Robertson family, at the Bay of Islands, - whatever the natives may have asserted to have haver been the immediate cause of the crime - took place two days after the settlement of their disputed claim to the island where they were murdered. In Cook's Strait, the New Zealand Company was not more fortunate in obtaining quiet possession of its lands. At Pepitia, at the Hutt, at Motu-pipi, at Motueka, at Wakapuaka, and at Whanganui, the attempted occupation of the land was met by forcible opposition; sometimes by the pulling down of fences and houses, always with threatened violence to the settlers; and culminating, at the Wairau, in an appalling massacre. The settlements of Wellington, Whanganui, Taranaki, and Nelson are the practical results of the Company's purchases; sufficient, in the end, but for years, attended with difficulties, and delays, inseparable from the system; and heart-breaking to the early settlers. The failure of the Company to obtain an unimpeachable Title, was not the result of culpable negligence, or of dishonourable dealing. Its Agents obtained the best interpreters that were available; and sought out the principal Chiefs of the localities, where they purchased land. The names of boundaries were not taken from a map, but from the utterances of the native sellers, as they sailed in the "Tory" past the different headlands that defined the Districts sold. There was also a provision made that the natives should have reserved for them, for their use and maintenance, an area equivalent to a tenth of the land sold to Europeans; or, where the proportion was not stated, an amount "suitable and sufficient for their residence and the proper maintenance of their Chiefs, their tribes, and their families." In the North no such provision had been made, even where the Missionaries and Mr. Busby bought gigantic claims. It is true that the Missionaries did not purchase like the Company, entire districts; but such a reservation would have been a wise, and in the end, not an expensive policy. The chief defects in the Company's purchases, and causes of ultimate dissatisfaction, were that the Agents had not landed in the several villages, to obtain the consent of the local natives. They sent for the Chiefs of Blind Bay Toritapu, and Pelorous river, to come to Queen Charlotte Sound, to receive payment; and certain of the natives came, and were parties to the sale; but many stayed away, and received little, or none, of the payment. In the case of the Wairau, the Kapiti Chiefs, Te Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, knew that Col. Wakefield believed he was purchasing the land, whatever their own mental reservations might be. They heard the names of the places about the Wairau ennumerated in the Deed before they signed it. But Col. Wakefield never went to the Wairau, or distributed payment at Cloudy Bay; and the result was a repudiation of the sale; and a forcible occupation of the land against the buyers. A Capt. Blenkinsop, of Auckland, had, some years previously, bought land at the Wairau; giving, in payment a ship's _________(?). Col. Wakefield bought the interest of Blenkinsop's widow, for a hundred pounds; and at the investigation, the natives declared that the only payment they had received was the rusty old gun. The Company sent its settlers out too shortly after the sailing of the preliminary expedition; and Col. Wakefield had not time to complete his purchases, before two interruptions occurred. One of these was the arrival of the first settlers at once; who had to be located; and the other, the Government prohibition against all further land purchases. The cargo of the second vessel that arrived, the "Cuba", was intended for land payments; and no doubt further payments would have been made for the already acquired districts; but there was a danger of the whole purchase being vitiated by any payment made subsequently to the interdict; and the cargo of the "Cuba" was sent away for the purchase of the Chatham Islands; which were not mentioned in the prohibition. The Company's land purchasing operations were further impaired by the presence of a number of Sydney speculators; who followed the "Tory" about, tampering, with the natives who had just sold their land; or seeking out, and buying the interest of, or share of some petty Chief; who had not received what he considered, a sufficient share of payment. These purchases, trivial in appearance at the time, became, in the estimation of a Government not friendly to the Company's interests, of great importance; and serious delays, and contentions, in respect to Titles, followed. Many of the old purchasers have left behind them only their names. Thus Capt. Herd's little island of Paroa (Ponui) and Waiheke; and Capt. McDonnell's, of Oruawharo, Otamatea, and Manukau - considered important enough for the first New Zealand Company in 1826, and the New Zealand Land Company in 1839, to commence colonizing operations upon - these claims have now been followed by the grant of a single acre in the places mentioned. Amongst claims of a more bona fide nature, there was so much uncertainty as to places and boundaries, that on the partition of a large claim amongst the separate purchasers, nine grantees received land similarly described, in area and boundary. (unsigned.)