E—No. 1

Missionaries and to send their children to school. Advise them to be sober and honest, and to shun evil communications whether they be with Pakeha or with Maori." These are the commands of our gracious Queen. I am glad to be able to provide a " dry resting place" for you as you desire, and have directed your good friend Hamilton to purchase a place for you. There you will be able to bring your firewood, your potatoes, wheat, fish and pigs. I am also glad that you have erected a flour mill, and when I go back to Auckland I will enquire if there is any money ready, and if so, I will send you some. You must know, however, that I have only a certain sum to lend. I have lent it all, but when those who have borrowed pay their debts (which may not be for some time), I shall be again able to lend, and will lend to you in your turn. I regret to hear that differences exist amongst some of you respecting your timber lands. What you say about subdividing these lands and apportioning them in fair proportions to families and individuals, is good. To assist you in effecting such a subdivision of the land as the Chiefs and owners thereof may cordially agree to, I will direct an Officer of the Native Department to accompany you to the places in dispute, and to witness the fixing of such boundaries as you yourselves may decide upon ; but you must distinctly understand in making you this offer that you are not to have any quarrels among yourselves in settling the boundaries. If I find that you agree in this arrangement, I shall then recommend to the Queen that titles similar to those of the Europeans should be issued to such individuals or families. It will always afford me the greatest pleasure to hear from time to time that you are making good use of your Reserves, which are now become valuable by the settlement of Europeans; and I trust that you will by industry and perseverance, farm them to good advantage. You should also build comfortable and substantial houses to live in, as some few of you have already done. This will tend very much to promote your own health and comfort. All people acquire wealth by being frugal and industrious, and you have the means at your disposal, by having a ready market for your produce, to become a prosperous people ; and I trust the time is not far distant when you will more fully appreciate and recognize the advantages of living under the protection of the good and wise laws of the Queen of England. Farewell, my friends. Live in peace with each other, and remember that the Bible tells us to ■; do unto others as we would they should do unto us."

[Note. — The Turanga Address does not appear to be recorded.]

Enclosure 2 in No. 1. MEMORANDUM BY THE LAND CLAIMS COMMISSIONER. In obedience to the Governor's commands that I should state in an official form the substanco of a private letter I recently addressed to His Excellency from Poverty Bay, I have to make the following remarks on the land claims there under purchase from the Natives. These claims are few in number, and do not comprise together more than 2200 acres. Only six are for land bought prior to Governor Sir G. Gipps' proclamation of 14th January, 1840. The others relate to transactions entered into contrary to law, at various periods from 1840 to 1854 or 1855. When Governor Fitzroy introduced what is called the penny-an-acre proclamation, tho Turanga settlers asked him to waive the right of pre-emption, so as to enable them to complete their purchases: but he refused. With the exception of these transactions, of a small piece of land sold to the Government not long ago as a place for the Resident Magistrate, and of the land set apart for the Bishop's Industrial School, the Native title has not been extinguished, and the District remains in the hands of the Natives. Mr. McLean was to have enquired into the claims at Turanga some years ago, but was prevented from doing so, chiefly, I believe, on account of so many of them being illegal, while, in his position towards the Natives, it would have been almost impossible for him to avoid going into them. The same difficulty was in my way ; for while the Land Claims Acts gave me no authority formally to " investigate" cases in which land was bought without the sanction of Government since 1840, the Natives were anxious to have all enquired into, if any. For some time past there has been growing up a desire on their part to repossess themselves of the lands they had sold; and before I got to Poverty Bay, there were discussions among them as to whether they should appear before me at all, lest by doing so they should compromise the position they had assumed towards the settlers. However, they determined to come, and several meetings took place between us in the last week of December, 1859. They opened the discussion by a very decided intimation of their intention to resume all the land; but in order to strengthen their position, they adopted a course quite novel, namely that of repudiating their sales; commencing with the claim of the Bishop of Waiapu, which I had alway» understood to be disputed by nobody. Daring the meetings, I explained to them that there were three classes of claims at Turanga: Ist. Those arising prior to 1840; 2nd. Those arising out of the setting apart of land for the maintenance of half-caste children.; and 3rd. Those arising out of purchases after Sir G. Gipps' proclamation.

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TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.