PROSPECTING IN TEE KING GOV TRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7267, 4 March 1885, Page 5

PROSPECTING IN TEE KING GOV TRY.

Ms. G. T. Wilkinson, Government Native Agent, Waikato and Thames, writes as follows to the Waikato Times :— Sir,— paragraph appears in your issue of Saturday last as iollowr : "At a native meeting held at Kihikihi on the 25th inst.. with reference to the railway and other matter*, Wahanui stated that the Maoris intend to prospect for gol in the King Country, and that Mr. Barry, who was present at the meeting, was to hnv* churgM of the party, with full discretion." I am authorised to state that the above is fala , and that nothing of the. sort wxs said by Wahauui ; also, that it is the intention of the natives to prohibit prospecting at present over their land , and until they hare completed arrangements for opening them for that purpose, and they have asked the Government to assist them to that end. lam al»o instructed to state that any parsons going surreptitiously into'.tbe King Country for the purpose of prospecting are not only breaking the Jaw, but they are tin. edlug and delaying the negotiations that are at present goi«g on between the Government and the natives regarding the North Island Trunk Railway and the opening up of the country.