C—No. 9

2

PAPERS EELATIVE TO THE

No. 1. ME. MANTELL, COMMISSIONEE OF CEOWN LANDS, TO MR. DOMETT, CIVIL SECRETAEY. Otago, August 17th, 1853. Sir,— I have the honor to enclose a copy of the Deed of Cession of the Murihiku Block, executed this day between the Native claimants and myself. I have also the honor to transmit a copy of the Map annexed to the Deed, and of those of th* Native Reserves in the newly acquired territory. You will observe that by the Deed I have engaged to pay one instalment of a Thousand pounds (£1,000) at Otago, immediately on the assembly there, of a few sub-claimants, whom Topi and Matewai will bring up at once, probably before the end of next month; and the second, also of One thousand pounds, (£1,000) at the Bluff, so soon as the money shall arrive. On the subject of these funds I have the honor to address you a letter supplementary to this. As such arrangements were perhaps not forseen in my instructions, I do myself the honor is a separate communication of reporting to you for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the circumstances under which I have felt it incumbent upon me to depart from the letter, in order to carry out the spirit, of those instructions. I have, &c, Walter Mantell, Commissioner for the extinguishment of Native Claims. To the Civil Secretary, &c. &c, &c, Wellington.

No. 2. ME. MANTELL, COMMISSIONER OF CROWN LANDS, TO ME. DOMETT, CIVIL SECRMABY. Otago, 18th August, 1853. Sic, — I have the honor to request you to submit to His Excellency the Governor the following statement of the circumstances under which I have felt it my duty to conclude the negotiations for the purchase of the Murihiku district. I would be permitted to recur to the commencement of my engagement in this particular duty. In April, 1851 I had the honor, by desire of the Governor-in-Chief, to address to you a preliminary report on the proposed purchase, in reply to which I was informed (14th April, 1851 —493) that the duty would be entrusted to me, and that I should leave Wellington in the middle of August. I received my instructions (17th October, 1851..—1285) on the 20th October, and having arrived here in the beginning of November, I, in accordance with those instructions, proceeded overland to the remotest Native settlement in the district, investigating the respective claims of the resident Natives, and fixing the boundaries of their Reserves, which were immediately afterwards surveyed by the Government surveyor. I then had tho honor (31st March, 1852) of transmitting to you the various reports required by my instructions. Having appointed the 24th May for the final komiti to be held at Otago, and announced that the distribution of the first instalment (£1,000) would take place at the Bluff (Awarua) in June, I had the honor in my letter of March 31st, 1852, to request authority for the Resident Magistrate to proceed thither with me at that time, which authority was granted in your letter of sth May, 1852, 433 (received 12th May). Since that date I have been honoured with no further communication on the subject, but as the necessary funds did not arrive, I permitted the assembled Natives to return, promising to come down immeeliately on my receipt of the money. On reaching their homes they collected a hakari at the Bluff to celebrate the expected event, but at last dispersed. For the last twelve months I have endeavoured to the utmost of my power to keep their disposition to cede unaltered; but the difficulty so increased during the latter part of that period, that Pcould plainly perceive that except under circumstances more propitious than I dared to anticipate, the negotiations, whenever His Excellency should be pleased to direct their renewal, would, how skilfully soever they might be conducted, terminate in an arrangement far less advantageous than that practicable in 1852, if they terminated in any arrangement at all. I hail even proposed to suggest to you that such renewal might be undertaken with more likelihood of success by some other Officer, who might cast on me the reproach of having failed to keep the first engagement. And I may here mention incidentally, that on my fixing tho time for the distribution, the Natives expressed a fear that they would be again deceived, as they formerly were by me at Akaroa and elsewhere; but I assured them that this time for reasons which as they proved fallacious it is needless to repeat, their fears were groundless. Thus "ha tukuka a Matara" (Mantell's distributions) are passing into a "kupu tohakariteritc" for engagements not likely to bo