E—No 1.

GOVERNOR'S DESPATCH marked is exhibited by the manner in which Wiremu Kingi, who not very long after was writing to the Yen. Archdeacon Hadfield, " We are residing here in great grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," proposed to treat his enemies :—" A short time since, when the position of Ihaia seemed desperate, and when his principal opponent, Wiremu Kingi, had evinced a determination to slaughter, without regard to sex or age the inmates of the Karaka Pa, a Memorial was addressed to His Excellency the , Governor, praying him to rescue these unfortunate people" (94). Ihaia has never recovered from the sufferings he underwent at that time, and remains to this day a broken man, covered with sores: but his courage and faithful loyalty to the Queen,are as conspicuous as ever. ,- V. PROCEEDINGS OF GOVERNOR GORE BROWNE IN RELATION TO THE PURCHASE AT WAITARA. 73. It was in the hope of putting an end to the dreadful scenes which had been enacted for so many years at Taranaki, that 1 held a meeting of the Ngatiawa Chiefs at that place in March, 1859, and made a public declaration of my intentions for the future. I then laid down the principle, that while on the one hand I would buy no land the title to which was in dispute by its rightful owners, I would not permit either Chiefs or people to forbid the sale of land by such members of the Ngatiawa tribe as were willing to cede their own land to Her Majesty (96\ The scene which took place when Te Teira, upon my accepting his offer of land subject to investigation of title, laid a Parawai mat at my feet in token of the cession of his rights, must be familiar to your Grace (97). But for giaphic descriptions of it, I beg leave to refer Your Grace to the addresses delivered by Mr. McLean at the great meeting of Waikato Chiefs in May las', and at the more recent Conference of Chiefs (98). At the conclusion of the first-mentioned Address many of the Waikato Chiefs were heard to say,—"The speech of Mr. McLean was quite straight; great was its light" (99). 74. Te Teira's right was disputed before me by no one but a man named Paora; on the contrary, the cry arose, " Waitara is gone." But though Wiremu Kingi did not venture to contest in that assembly of Chiefs the right of those whose representative Te Teira was in the offer, he expressed his determination to forbid the sale :+*" William King, before addressing the Governor, said to his people, 'I will only say a few words, and then we will depart;' to which they assented. He then said, ' Listen, Governor. Notwithstanding Teira's offer I will not permit the sale of Waitara to the Pakeha. Waitara is in my hands, I will not give it up ; ekore, ekore, elnre, I will not, I will not, I will not. I have spoken!' and, turning to his tribe, added, 'Arise, let us go— whereupon he and his followers abruptly withdrew" (100). 75. This was not the first time he had informed me of his determination to prevent any sales of , land at Waitara. In a letter he addressed to me on the 11th February, 1859, about a month before my visit to New Plymouth, he srid:—" Do you hearken to our Runanga [village council] respecting the land. The boundary commences, &c, &c. I have therefore written to the Governor and you to tell you of the Runanga of this new year, which is for withholding the land: because some of the Maories still desire to sell land, which causes the approach of death. It is said that lam the cause, but it is not so, it is the men who persist; they have heard, yet they still persist. If you hear of any one desiring to sell land within these boundaries which we have here pointed out to you, do not pay any attention to it, because that land-selling system is not approved of. This is all" (101). 76. Now it is very material to examine this ietter, because it affords conclusive evidence of the character of Kingi's claim, and a clue lo all his subsequent proceedings. He claims a right over all the land between Mokau and Waitaha—a distance of more than 40 miles. Now, the Waitaha stream is the northern boundary of the Bell Block ; to the north of it the Puketapu branch of the Ngatiawa have large possessions. The Chief of that section of the Tribe is Mahau, who would never for a moment recognise a "seignorial right" in Wiremu Kingi over his lands , who is in arms with us, and who, in the exercise of his undoubted proprietary rights, came to an arrangement with Te Teira as to a dividing boundary, and would, with his people, resist any claim of Wiremu Kingi's in 1860 as they successfully resisted his claim to the Bell Block in 1848. In like manner the claim of Kingi to the whole territory, extending 40 miles North of Waitara. is so utterly preposterous as to require no notice here. I allude to his letter, because it was an open declaration of the purpose of the Taranaki Land League, of which I shall presently speak, and because it set up, just before my visit to Taranaki in 1859, precisely that kind of claim and no other which, a< month after, he raised when Teira's offer was publicly made. 77. Immediately after the meeting of March 1859, I directed that a formal notice should be sent to Wiremu Kingi, Te Patukakariki, and the other Chiefs of Waitara, informing them of Teira's offer, and inviting them to send in any claims they had (102). On the 12th of April I caused a second letter ; to be written to Kingi, in which I specially warned him thus : " The Governor's rule is, for each man to have the word as regards his own land : that of a man who has no claim will not be listened to." (103). The reply 1 received, dated 25th April, says : "I will not agree to our bedroom being ' sold (I mean Waitara here), for this bed belongs to the whole of us. Do you hearken to my word. If you give the money secretly, you will get no land for it. You may insist, but I will never agree to it. Do not suppose that this is nonsense on my part; no, it is true, for it is an old word : and now I have no new proposal to make, either as regards selling or anything else. All I have to say to you, O Governor, is that none of this land will be given to you, never never, not till I die ( _04)." ', 78. There is an expression in this letter which has been much relied upon as conveying a distinct notice of proprietary right. Much ingenious argument has been used to give the word " bedroom" a peculiar force; It is urged that Kingi refers in a touching manner to the ancient birthplace of his

governor's despatch, 4th Dec, 1860.

(94) Memorial ofProv, Council, Sess. Pap. Gen. Ass. 1858.

(96) Official Statement App. E. 12. (97) Official Statement Parris, App. C.4.

(98) McLean, Speeches App. C. 1, 2. (99) Buddie, App. C. 1.

100) Official Statement, March, 1859, Parris, App C. 4.

(101) Wiremu Kingi, App. B. 25.

(021) iVoti'ci. to Chiefs App. C. 3.

(103) Native Secretary App. B. 25.

(104) Wiremu Kingi, App. B, 25.