This letter received by Capt. King on the evening of the 12th and referred to me 13th. New Plymouth January 10th 1848 Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this day's date forwarding a map of two blocks of land lately acquired from the Taranaki and Ngamotu natives and placing that land at my disposal subject to such reservations for the natives, and for Government as are shewn on the map and to an arrangement by which about seventy acres in the Taranaki purchase are to be retained by the Natives for a period of two years from the 2nd Septr. last. To this latter arrangement I make no objection, because it follows a precedent, however unfortunate, adopted in other cases nor have I any objection to the reserves made for Government of the sites of Te Ngahoro and Omata Pah's. But the reserves marked out for the natives in both Blocks are essentially different from those which I have been previously made acquainted with: and I will not hazard the full expression of my surprise at these alterations, and at my being now for the first time informed of them, I allude to the reserve of two sections belonging to absentee Proprietors in the Block of 10,000 acres and to the reserve marked public in the block of 12000 acres. With reference to the first