D.—No. 2

(Extract.) Treasury, Wellington, March 25th, 1865. I have now to request your particular attention to the following retrenchments which the Government has decided to carry into effect. IMMIGRANTS. No wages nor rations are to be given to immigrants who are located upon their lands after the 30th of April next ensuing. You will please, therefore, give the parties notice of this, and also write to the Superintendent informing him of it. This, you will perceive, will give a month's notice to all who are now on their land, after which wages and allowances will cease. I have, &c, J. WOODWARD. A ssistant-Treasurer. No. 33. The Superintendent, Auckland, to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaht. ■Sir, — Waikato Settlement Office. Auckland, April 3rd, 18G5. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter, dated March 25th instant, informing me that it appears to the Government that it may be conducive to the interests of the Province and the Colony, as well as of the immigrants themselves, to give them Crown grants of their land immediately, without requiring the consideration of residence, and requesting to be favored with my opinion on the subject. I must observe, with much deference, that the carrying out of this proposal would amount to an abandonment of the whole scheme for the settlement of the Waikato. The sole object of bringing out these immigrants was to keep them on their lands; and anything done subversive of that object would be, in my opinion, a breach of faith with the Colony, and more especially with the Province of Auckland. The immediate issue of Crown grants would assuredly induce the greater number of the immigrants to realise and quit, thereby incurring the waste of the whole expenditure already laid out in the location. I am confident that such throwing of land into the market would not have the effect of expediting the introduction of capital into the newly settled districts. It would merely leave them waste. Capitalists do not purchase five-acre allotments; and although money contributed by bond fide settlers would readily be found for the purchase of lands alongside of the settlements, the population being fixed, it would not be forthcoming were the population removed, unless perhaps from a few speculators desirous of investment. I take occasion to observe that it is of much consequence to the Province of Auckland that the General Government immigrants should not be dispersed, as it has been found necessary to check the influx of our own provincial immigration. I have, &c, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Bobert Graham, Superintendent. No. 34. The Superintendent, Auckland, to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary. Sir,— Waikato Settlement Office, Auckland, April 3rd, 1865. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 25th, 18G5, urging upon me the expediency of my furnishing the Government, without delay, with full j'artieulars o f all lands which, in my opinion, may be opened for sale, without infringing on the rights of friendly natives. I must request you to inform me what are the rights of friendly natives over confiscated blocks. Until receipt of such information from you, it will not be possible for me to make a satisfactory reply. I should presume that the friendly natives have, under the Act, no rights but those of compensation. These questions, however, it appears to me, would be more properly referred to the Court which has been established by }'ou for the express purpose of deciding such matters. You proceed to state that you conclude that the lands within the above blocks have been surveyed, and that the surveys arc in a state to show the lands allocated to immigrants, as well as those proposed to be offered for sale. You likewise request me to furnish you with tracings of such surveys with the least possible delay, with such explanatory remarks as may enable the Government to form a judgment upon the proposed plans of sale. In reply I invite your attention to your letter to me, dated 23rd December, 18G4, in which you state that—it is intended to include in the location of the immigrants the administration of the necessary surveys of the lots on which they are located, and that such administration is in like manner handed over to my Government. Also to my reply dated 2sih December, 18Gi, in which I state in regard to your proposal that 1 should undertake the administration of the necessary surve3 Ts of the lots on which the immigrants are to be located, that I am willing to do so. You will observe that the administration of the surveys of the lands proposed to be offered for sale has never been officially handed over to me: consequently that I am not necessarily required to supply tracings of such surveys, or explanatory remarks. But I have used my best endeavours to promote the work, and comply, as far as I am able, with your request, by forwarding the information through Major Heaphy's office, direct. I have also applied to Mr. Fenton, whose answer I enclose. By this it appears that certain blocks, mentioned therein, will be disposable under the New Zealand Settlements Act for sale or otherwise at an early date. In regard to that portion of your letter, which treats of the regulations for the sale of hind, transmitted by me for the consideration of the Government, it appears to me that you labor under some misapprehension. These regulations were given by me into Mr. Sewcll's hand, at Auckland. They appear to have been mislaid at Wellington: and I have not yet recovered the original draft. But they were to this effect: —

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CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO MAINTENANCE