E.—No. 4,

No. 3. BESIDENT MAGISTRATE, TAUEANGA, TO THE HONORABLE THE NATIVE MINISTER. Auckland, June 9th, 1862. Sir,— I have the honor to transmit for the information of the Government, a letter I this dayreceived from one of the Tauranga Assessors giving an account of a meeting held at Otumaitai, on the 29th May last. I have, <fec, H. T. Claeke, Resident Magistrate, Bay of Plenty. The Honorable the Native Minister.

Enclosure to No. 4. Otumaitai, May 29th, 1862. Friend Me. Heney Ciarke, — Salutations to you. This is an account of a meeting held by the men of Tauranga in May. On Tuesday, the 20th, Henare commenced telling what the Governor had said to him. He said : These are the words of the Governor,—" Friend, admit my laws into your Eunanga." I replied, the matter does not rest with me but with the people. If the people consent, I shall; if the people are averse to your laws, I shall not accept them. He said, " Let the Eunanga attend to it." The Eunanga then worked until daylight, and the Eunangas met together to show what they had done. Questions were put to the Euuangas of the Matapihi, and every Eunanga as far as Heria. They said, " Tiio result of our deliberations is, we will not accept the laws of the Queen, only the right of Tauranga." The second thing is, that the papers can only be sent to Auckland to be printed there. When they had concluded, Henara said, " Well and good, but do your work quickly, as I am going to Auckland, and write an account to the Governor of your proceedings, and say, " We will not accept your laws, O Governor." At this, I stood up in the (unoccupied) space, and said, " Look at me, all you people. You say that the men of Tauranga will not accept the Governor's laws ; I shall now deny your statements. Here am I, and I approve of the Governor's laws. You say that you will do away with the Governor's laws in Tauranga; what I say is this, you cannot do away with them, not even a small portion." I said a great deal to them. Friend, the people do greatly desire these laws now. Soon I shall write to inform you of their names. I think that when you come, the thoughts will be known. Friend, a letter from Wiremu Tamihana was read at that meeting, in which your name was mentioned. He said that Mr. Clarke was to administer the law for the whole of us. This was his word in that paper. The paper was addressed to Te Tirirakau. Friend, I have written Wiremu Tamihana at the request of the Eunanga of Tirirakau, they told me to write a letter to Wiremu. This is all I have to say. From your friend Eeueba Maihi.

No. 4. REPORT FROM THE CIVIL COMMISSIONER ON THE APPOINTMENT OF ASSESSORS, ETC. Civil Commissioner's Office, Maketu, Bay of Plenty, June 14th, 1862. Sib,— Adverting to your letter of the 3rd March, by which I am authorised to complete the organisation of this district in the manner proposed in my report of the 25th January, I have the honor to state that the necessary Native officers have been nominated for the various localities, excepting only the settlements on the Whakatane river. The number of these officers mentioned in your letter under reference as that proposed by me and for which provision for the payment of salaries from the 1st of January, has been made by the Government, falls short of what I find to be necessary under the head of Kareres. If the number twenty-nine was given in any estimate furnished by me, the error has probably been a clerical one, thirty-nine being intended. In all recent arrangements, I have sought to economise to the utmost, in order, if possible, to restrict the expenditure for pay of Native officers within the limits of the provision made, and have so far succeeded that the excess will amount to (£10) ten pounds only for the present year, allowing twelve months to pay for the necessary officers at Whakatane, not yet nominated. The following figures show where present arrangements differ from the estimate upon which the appropriation for salaries has been made :— ESTIMATED. REQUIRED. 24 Assessors at £30 £720 23 Assessors at £30 £690 16 Wardens at £20 320 14 Wardens at £20 280 29 Kareres at £10 290 37 Kareres at £10 370 £1,330 £1,340

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NATIVE AFFAIRS.