REPORTS, &c, OF COMMISSIONERS. second and a third time before the Governor replied. The Governor then turning to me said "If it is right and that he is really the owner, assent," The assent having been given Te Teira brought a parawai mat and placed it at the feet of the Governor. It lay there for some time, and was at last taken possession of for the Governor. Others got up to offer their pieces, but their offers were not accepted as the title did not appear clear. These were accordingly rejected. Wiremu Kingi then rose, and without atlempting to impugn Teira's title or right to sell, he merely spoke a tew words to the effect that Waitara should be held, and then returned to his place. Before leaving Taranaki I instructed the Land Purchase Commissioner there to investigate carefully the claims to this piece of land, and irot to proceed hastily in the matter. He has since been constantly engaged in inquiring into the question of title ; Wiremu Kingi also being present at the meetings and admitting that the land belonged to the sellers, but refusing his consent to its being sold. If he or any other person had shewn that any portion of the land belonged to him, such a claim would have been respected. His attempt to hold the land is connected with the land league, and was encouraged by the Maori King movement : otherwise he would not have ventured, as he has repeatedly done, to forbid the sale of land to which he never had any claim, not only at Waitara, but at Mokau, at Taranaki, and at other places. Had thi3 been land over which the Native title existed in its original state there might have been some excuse. After the talk (about the Waitara land) I crossed the straits to Aropaoa, and saw that section of the tribe which is with Ropoama Te Ore. I mentioned that a portion of the Waitara had been offered I recited the boundaries and asked, " Does that lani belong to Wiremu Kingi"? This I said merely to bring out information on the subject. The reply was, "No : if it was on the other side ot Waitara, his claim would be just, but this side belongs to us ; let us have the payment," I said " It will not be right to give it to you now, wait until the matter is clear ; let the claims be investigated on the spot, and then the payment may be given." They pressed the matter, and a third time they urged me to give them the payment. I replied, " Wait until the question is properly settled." Afterwards they agreed to this. The names of these Aropaoa people who have claims at Waitara are Ropoama Te Ore, Hipeka, Ngawheua, Te Herewini, Ihaka, Te Retimona, Timoti, Anaru, Haimona, Henare, Rupuha, Arapere, Hamiora, Tohi, Pirihira, Nata, Rakira, Eruera Te Rangi, Whiroa, Te Rei at Port Nicholson, and others. These people consented to the sale. It was I who delayed the matter, wishing that the claims should be investigated upon the land of their forefathers. [Maori Messenger, (a newspaper published by authority in the Native language) July, 1860.]

E—No. 1

commissioner's R£PORTS AND SPEECHES. D. McLean, Esq. (Kohimarama).

3. EXTRACT FROM EVIDENCE OF MR. MCLEAN AT THE BAR OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 14th AUGUST, 1860. I have to state that, several years previous to the purchase, I travelled over the district in company with some Natives, King's own brother being one of the party, and they pointed out to the respective claims of the different hapus or subdivisions of the Waitara tribes. This was in the year 1847, when the Natives were willing to dispose of their interest in the land at Waitara. The Government did not at that time go on with the purchase ; Wm. King was expected to come back from Kapiti, His own claims and those of his immediate followers were represented by the best possible evidence (that of his own brother; to be almost exclusively on the north bank of the Waitara River. It was stated to me by old men well acquainted with the circumstances, (speaking as Natives do of these matters, when referring to the several generations of owners), that King's own ancestors were but comparatively recent occupants even there. In 1848 Wm. King and his party returned to Waitara. It was their intention to occupy the north bank of the Waitara. But in consequence of some difference which one of his brothers had with a Native chief at the south— Ropoama—he designed to possess himself of a portion of the land at Waitara belonging to Ropoama. * * * The Waikato title to Taranaki was universally admitted by the natives at the time of the conquest: many acts of ownership over the soil had been exercised by them. The land was divided among the conquering chiefs ; the usual custom of putting up flags and posts to mark the boundaries of the portions claimed by each chief had been gone through. Any occupation of the? land by the Ngatiawa at that period vvas entirely out of the question, but those natives who were released from slavery from time to time were permitted by Waikato to occupy : but those who had fled to the South were not allowed to return, and they were distinctly warned that if a return were attempted it would be the cause for fresh war against Ngatiawa. The Waikato right was thus established as a right of conquest, and was fully admitted by the Ngatiawa themselves ; who, on each occasion when they sold a portion of land at Taranaki, sent a part of the payment to Waikato as an acknowledgement of conquest or of the right of Mana possessed by the Waikato chiefs as their conquerors. In this view of the question it is quite evident that the Ngatiawa title had been superseded by the right of the conquerors. And though, in course of time, the parties who fled to the shores of Kapiti, as wellas those who were taken csptive, were gradually permitted by Waikato to return, it was generally on the understanding that they were to recognize the superior rights of the Waikatos over the territory. The natives who first returned were from the Ngatimaniapoto country. They were permitted to return and did so, with this injunction from the Waikato chiefs who released thwn, to go and

D. McLean, Esq., Evidence at the Bar of the House. August, 18G0.