PAPERS CONNECTED WITH THE TARANAKI

Mr. Whitely, Mr. McLean and Mr. Forsaith had prepared the way for an arrangement, which appeared to them, as well as to the Governor, the only one likely to be effected in a satisfactory manner ; and immediate steps were taken to assemble the Natives, and obtain their consent. Various impediments and delays occurred ; but by the 25th of the month, all the Natives interested in the land on which the town is situated, and in its immediate vicinity, had consented to receive £350 in goods, money and animals, as a full compensation and completion of payment for a block of land at and around the town, containing about 3,500 acres. This block not only affords space for the present wants of the settlers, but has sufficient surplus land to enable outlying settlers to exchange their sections, at a distance from the settlement, for others equivalent in value, within the boundaries above mentioned. By thus concentrating the settlement, and narrowing the boundaries of the land at present occupied by settlers, the difficulties, if not disasters, apprehended to the settlers, in consequence of the long-meditated return of the Ngatiawa, will be avoided. The few absentee claimants to any portions of the town block, can be paid off as they arrive, in proportion to their actual claims (the extent of which are now fully known to the Protector) by comparing- the various statements of their relations, on the spot, and their number is limited. To enable the Company's agent to do justice to those who have purchased land outside of these new boundaries, and to enable him to procure more land for sale when required, the Crown's right of pre-emption will be waived, in favour of the Company only, within the large block (60,000 acres) already surveyed at their expense. As the Natives are, generally speaking, willing and anxious to sell the greater part of their lands, however tenacious of their right and choice, the Company's agent will not find it difficult to purchase portion after portion, for reasonable prices, provided that he does not injure his own market by buying too much or too hastily. Undoubtedly, it is the duty of the Company to make these purchases, in order to put their settlers in possession, and that the settlers themselves should be saved from further expenditure. As the claims of those who had boug-ht land near New Plymouth will be as good years hence as they are now, and as by far the greater part of the distant choices, not yet cultivated, are owned by Ngatiawa not yet returned, but intending to settle on or near them, it is extremely desirable that the agent should defer treating for those sections until their real owners or the majority of them are on the spot. By a reasonable delay, he will obtain not only much better terms from the Natives, but a secure and definite transfer from the right parties. Out of about 1,050 acre sections, surveyed and said to have been purchased by the Company, not 200 have yet been sold; therefore the matter is within compass. An expenditure of about £3,000 spread over three or four yeais, may settle the whole question amicably. Assuredly it is better to employ such a sum in establishing a respectable settlement in one of the finest districts of New Zealand, where many thousands of pounds have been already laid out in buildings, cultivations, roads, and bridges, &c, than to waste it upon the neighbouihood of Wanganui, Manawatu, or Porirua, for which Colonel Wakefield carried £3,000 along the coast, with Mr. Commissioner Spain, to be employed in completing the alleg-ed purchase of those secluded but wellpeopled districts, which the Natives steadily refused to abandon. As that sum will not be required for those places, it might be well employed at Taranaki. Robert Fitzßoy, Governor, Auckland, 2nd December, 1844.

No. 13. MEMORANDUM FROM THE CHIEF TROTECTOR OF ABORIGINES ON THE TERRITORIAL RIGHTS OF NATIVES WHEN IN CAPTIVITI. Memorandum for his Excellency the Governor, showing that the New Zealanders do not forfeit their territorial rights by being carried into captivity, or becoming captives. 1. The wife of Moka, one of the principal chiefs of the Bay of Islands, was a captive from Wakatane, of the Wakatohea tribe. She had several children by Moka, the eldest of which was sent to Wakatane by his mother, to cUfim her territorial rights. His grandfather and uncles all acknowledged the equity of the claim, and the lands are held in trust for the children by their uncles. Had the chief Moka presumed to have claimed an acre of these lands in virtue of conquest, the claim would have been treated with contempt. 9. Puhe, a Ngapuhi chief, captured the daughter of a respectable chief in the vicinity of tho East Cape ; he afterwards married her, and had a family by her. Inconsequence of some disagreement with his tribe, she advised him, and ultimately prevailed upon him, to leave his tribe and proceed with her to the East Cape, to live upon her lands, where they at present reside. Were this chief to assume a right to these lands, grounded upon conquest, it would cost him his life. By his wife's consent and that of her friends, he resides there; he is looked upon as an alien, and considers himself iv the light of a voluntary exile.

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