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certain that if the Government had attempted the Survey itself, it would have cost more than £10,000. I had the Hokianga Scrip Claims surveyed, which cost on the average a shilling per acre : and I think that rate may be taken as a fair estimate of the value of the surveys executed by the Claimants themselves. Assuming this estimate, it follows that the Claimants should be credited with a sum of about £23,000 as the cost of surveying the 474,146 acres above mentioned, to be added to the sums paid to the natives and the Government; and thus a total is reached of about £131,000, under all these heads of expenditure together.

It will be convenient, before proceeding to the details of the disposal of the Claims, to see what relation these sums bear to each other. The total amount of money or moneys worth which their purchases cost the Claimants was in round numbers £131,000 ; the total area their claims were found to contain was 474,000 acres. Looking therefore at the transaction in the gross, it may be said that the land cost the claimants at the rate of ss. 6d. per acre, up to the point when the Government should either make them grants or purchase their interest. I have often heard it said that it would have been far better for the Claimants to have thrown up all their land at once, and bought what they wanted from the Crown ; and I think the facts I have just mentioned go far to justify that saying.

7.— How the Claims have been Disposed of.

The Return shows in a short form the actual settlement of each case, at whatever period or under whatever regulations it was settled. These settlements were of the most various character, and often took place without authority of law. One Commissioner who had not investigated a claim reversed the decision of another Commissioner who had; one Governor made his own awards without regard to the decisions of any Commissioner; another Governor laid down rules of his own for the settlement of claims ; the Government at its pleasure granted Scrip or Money in exchange for the claimant's interest or in compensation for his outlay ; the Secretary of State often interfered, and gave decisions in England; the Supreme Court was in several cases applied to, and even the Privy Council was appealed to for final judgment. In this way a mass of decisions came to be made upon varying and often conflicting principles, or rather under circumstances which precluded the application of any principle at all; and it is not to be wondered at, as it certainly cannot be denied, that some injustice was the result.

It was the policy of the Legislature in 1856 to exclude all lapsed or settled cases from being reopened, and thereby to validate for practical purposes all the decisions made by former Governments : but this did not prevent numbers of the claimants interested in those decisions from bringing cases before me, and urging that they were not in reality excluded by the Act. The consequence has been that I have not had only to enquire into those cases which were allowed to be investigated by the Act, but I have had to make myself master of every one of the claims in order to see whether each was excluded or not; for I admitted everybody whose claim had lapsed, to show cause why it should not be treated as having lapsed by his own default.

The object I have for my own part chiefly aimed at has been a reasonable uniformity of principle in giving decisions. Taking as a rule for my guidance the desire constantly expressed in both Houses during the discussions of 1856 that a liberal interpretation should be given to the Act, I have in every case awarded as much as I felt empowered to do, and have sincerely endeavoured to satisfy the claimants while I guarded the public interest. lam bound to add that in almost every case I have been met by the claimants in a spirit which reflected the highest credit upon their fairness and moderation, and without which on their part it would have been impossible for me to carry out the law with any success.

B.— T/te Quantity of Land Awarded or Granted.

In the Return will be found the acreage awarded or granted in each case. This, including the survey allowances granted under the Act, amounts in the whole to 292,475 acres, and will probably reach the total quantity of about 315,000 acres if no alteration be made in the principles of the existing Acts.

The amount granted or awarded in the settlement of old Land Claims is 267,175 acres ; in the Pre-emptive claims 25,300 acres. I have thought it best to include land which has been directed to be granted as well as land for which grants have been actually executed, because under the operation of the Acts the award (except in a very few cases) really represents the final settlement of the claim, and the issue of the grant is merely the completion of the award. In this way it will be seen by any one who examines the Return, that here and there orders aro

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LAND CLAIMS COMMISSION: