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the Natives there, I would submit for His Excellency's favourable consideration that this additional payment of one hundred and fifty pounds (£150) should be made. I have, &c, (Signed,) Donald McLean, Chief Commissioner. The Private Secretary, &c, &c, &c. Auckland, SOth May, 1856. Snt,-— I am directed by His Excllency the Governor to inform you, that if you can settle the claims of the Kaiapoi Natives finally for the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, you are authorized to do so, taking care that this payment shall not afford any pretext for making future demands for payment by the Natives of the Canterbury Province. As the mail by the " Zingari" will close in an hour, His Excellency has been good enough to mark his approval of this claim being settled ; and no doubt on presenting this letter, the Sub-Treasurer at Port Cooper will advance the sum of £150 required to extinguish this claim. I have, &c, (Signed.) Donald McLean, Chief Commissioner. J. Grant Johnson, Esq., District Commissioner. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, Slst May, 1856. Sib,— I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to authorize you to advance to Mr. Commissioner Johnson, the sum of £150 for the purpose of settling Native claims to land at Kaiapoi and at Ranks' Peninsula. I have, &c, (Signed,) John Hall, Colonial Secretary. The Sub-Treasurer, Canterbury. Akaroa, 7th June, 1856. Sis,— In compliance with your letter of the 25th April last, I proceeded to Port Cooper in the steamer "Zingari," and after personally communicating with Mr. Brittan, the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Christchurch, and, after making myself acquainted with the previous history of the land question in this Province, I proceeded to Akaroa for the purpose of carrying out the award of Mr. Commissioner Mantell for settling the Native claims, which, from the information I have been able to gather, appears to have been, that the Natives should relinquish all their lands in Akaroa in consideration of receiving a Reserve of five hundred acres at Onuku on the North side of the harbour, and a sum of one hundred and fifty pounds in money. I had several meetings and long discussions with the Natives, with a view of inducing them to accede to these terms, and the result has been that they have refused to submit to them, and would rather incur the risk of being dispossessed by force, which alternative, they inform me, was given them by His Excellency the Governor. The instructions which you furnished me with, are based upsn the supposition that the Natives are in the occupation of land which they have ceded to the Crown, whereas upon a careful investigation of the ease, it does not appear clear that the Crown has acquired any title to the land which it is sought to dispossess the Natives of, and their statements are so clear and satisfactory that they have never with their knowledge and consent sold all their possessions, that I am unable to adopt the course which I would under other circumstances feel it my duty to pursue, of compelling them to quit those lands, or ia the event of their not doing so, abide the alternative which has been intimated to them. Two deeds exist in the French language, purporting to convey the whole of Banks' Peninsula to Captain Langlois and M. Belligny on behalf of the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, neither of which contain any provision whatever for Reserves for the Natives of Port Cooper, Port Levi, Pigeon Bay, or Akaroa, and it is very evident that the Natives of those places, numbering at that time several hundreds, could never have made a bonafide sale of the whole of Banks' Peninsula without an understanding that some portions were to be left for themselves. No doubt, some Natives were induced to sign conveyances giving up the whole Peninsula, but, I am informed by old residents here, that many of them were so averse to their land being sold to the French Company, that they died in chagrin, rather than partake a share of the payment. The Nanto-Bordelaise Company's claim has never been examined before the Commissioner appointed to enquire into and report on claims for Grants of Land in New Zealand, and as that Court was directed by law to guide their judgments by good conscience and equity, we may fairly assume that it would have, on consideration of the before mentioned circumstances, excluded the lands the Natives denied having sold from the Nanto-Bordelaise Company's purchase.