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been finally purchased, and paid for, by Governors and Government officers, yet it has chiefly been by our own continuous endeavours and endless arguments that these Natives have been persuaded to alienate their waste property to the Crown, and to intermix so familiarly and beneficially with their European friends. "And yet what we have done here is only in accordance with the general practice of the other members of our mission, when opportunity has occurred, as may be seen from the following extract of a letter published in the ' New-Zealander' in June last. Some one, it would appear, had taken up the common observations concerning Missionary obstruction, and applied them to our body, and it was in answer to that allegement that the Chairman of our District very properly published the following disclaimer:— " ' You insinuate that some or all of the Missionaries are opposed to, or do oppose, the settlement of the country by colonists ! Now, sir, for myself and all my brethren, I boldly meet your accusation with this public denial, in the strongest form the language will admit of. No, sir, it has long been our settled, unanimous, and declared conviction, that the sooner the land is purchased by Government, and the country filled in the length and breadth of it with British colonists, the better it will be for all parties. Both the Surveyor-General and the Native Land Commissioner will tell you that our conduct is in accordance with these professions.' "I therefore feel that I have the same right as others to express my opinions on a subject with which the best interests of my people, and of my whole missionary life at Taranaki, have been so intimately identified." The above extracts contain all that I proposed in the year 1855, in reference to the Waitara land, but which, after all, was no proposal of mine, but the ''peremptory" plan of Sir G. Grey, as laid down by him on the 2nd of March, 1847. At this time his Excellency wrote thus to the Secretary of State: — " Upon taking a review of the whole of these circumstances, together with our isolated and weak position in this portion of New Zealand, the only arrangement I thought could be advantageously made, was, to acquaint the Natives that I should order in the first place that the most ample reserves for their present and future wants should be marked off for the Resident Natives, as well as for those who were likely to return to Taranaki; but that the remaining portion of the country in that district should be resumed for the Crown, and for the use of the Europeans. That in the fulfilment of the promises made by my predecessor, the value of the resumed land, in its wild and defenceless state, should be assessed by a Commissioner, and that a Court should then be appointed to enquire into the Native titles to the whole or portions of the district so resumed; and that those Natives who established valid claims to any part of it should receive the corresponding portions of the payment to which they would become entitled. But very few of the Natives seemed disposed to assent to this arrangement. '' But they distinctly understood that it was my intention to enforce it. I trust that it may meet with your Lordship's approval, as the best which could, under circumstances of such difficulty, be made; and as one which, whilst it ensures the interests of Her Majesty's European subjects, inflicts no injury on Her Majesty's subjects of the Native race: although I fear that these latter, now that their cupidity has been so strongly excited, may, if they think they are strong enough, endeavour to resist it by force of arms." So much for the plan itself. And as to its execution, Governor Grey on the sth of th 3 same month instructed Mr. Commissioner McLean, after making ample reserves to the several tribes, that " Every rffort should be made to acquire for the European population those tracts of land which were awarded to the New Zealand Company by Mr. Spain. " If possible, the total amount of land resumed for the Europeans should be from 60,000 to 70,000 acres. " No time should be lost in completing these arrangements, (and that) "Those Natives who refuse to assent to this arrangement mu3t distinctly understand that the Government do not admit that they are the true owners of the land they have recently thought proper to occupy." And lastly, in reference to Captain Fitzroy's reversal of Mr. Spain's award, Sir G. Grey received a despatch from the Secretary of State (Mr. Gladstone) of 2nd July, 1846, in which the following passage occurs:— " I cannot but express my great, surprise and regret, at not having been placed by Captain FitzEoy in possession of a full repoit of the course which he pursued in this case, and of his reasons for that course. I however indulge the hope that you may have found yourself in a condition to give effect to the award of Mr. Spain in the case of the Company's claims at New Plymouth ; and in any case I rely on your endeavours to gain that end, so far as you may have found it practicable, unless indeed, which I can hardly think probable, you may hare seen reason to believe that the reversal of the Commissioner's judgment was a wise and just measure." Such was the sanction which Sir George Grey's plan received, as by anticipation, from the Home Government. As to Mr. Spain's award of Bth June, 1844, I was present when it was given, and both then and since I have ever looked upon it as a most upright judgment, and one which ought not to have been reversed. At the same time, it may be quite true, that with the small force then in the Colony, the Governor could not have carried that award into immediate execution. The block of land awarded by Her Majesty's Commissioner was bounded on the North by the Surveyor's line at Titirangi, three miles from the Waitara Eiver. This breadth of three miles is included in that tract which Mr. McLean was instructed by Sir G. Grey to use "every effort to acquire for the European population.'' And I never heard that scheme pronounced to be " dishonour-

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