(Copy) New Plymouth, October 22nd, 1846. Sir, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 20th instant, relative to the occupation by an European of land belonging to the Wesleyan Missionary Society. You are correct in stating that Mr. Commissioner Spain with the concurrence of the New Zealand Company's Agent, awarded the two sections marked on the map as ''Missionary Station, 100 acres. 0 r. 0 p.'' to the Wesleyan Missionary Society: Mr. George Clarke Junior, as protector of Aborigines, also approved of the arrangement and signed the map. The latest accounts I have received relative to the proceedings of Captain Fitzroy are inconclusive as to their validity: the Secretary of State for the Colonies had not given any decided instructions on that point to Governor Grey. To your first question, therefore, I can only reply, that your title to the land in dispute being derived through the New Zealand Company is in the same state as the Company's - not yet a full and absolute one, but good against all claimants - I should say good to hold but not to sell. Secondly - Even if Captain Fitzroy's arrangement is confirmed, and the native who claims the land is declared the owner of it, he has no right to dispose of it, in any way to other than the New Zealand Company; whose exclusive right of preemption is not to be evaded by a lease, which might be for 99 years and equivalent to a sale. Thirdly - I would advise you to serve a notice on the European, warning him of the illegality of his lease, and of your intention as soon as the question of title is finally decided, to proceed against him for the recovery of the land, the crops upon it, and compensation for any waste or damage he may commit upon the property. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient Serv., F.T. Wicksteed N.Z. Co's Res. Agent for New Plymouth.