to headquarters in your absence. One question was that of some Native reserves in the Waiwakaiho block which from the complicated nature of the arrangement in making those reserves for the Natives, by enlarging them for a nominal payment from the Natives, a doubt has arisen as to the proper way of treating them. There is no definition of what part is reserve or what part has been paid for, but merely the quantities mentioned, and both marked off in one allotment without any distinction, I there-for considered that the best way would be to treat them as reserves, and accordingly got 9 of those allotments conveyed to the Crown, when Wi Tako was here, but have not forwarded them to head quarters to be Gazetted, being desirous of getting your opinion before doing so. Some of the Local authorities want to impose a Tax upon those reserves, and state that it was the intention of the Government, to give the owners Crown Grants, but I