A.—No. 1

4

DESPATCHES PROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE

Seevice. Amount. Total. £ s. d. £ s. d. Amount of claim by Military Store Department, on account of stores supplied at Sydney, for gun-boat "Waikato" . . . 14115 11 14115 11 641,465 13 10 Deduct. Value of overcharges— vide W. O. queries from Ist May to 31st October, 1863 ..... 205 12 3 Gross Amount . £641,260 1 7 Commissariat, New Zealand, H. Stanley Jones, Auckland, 26th April, 1865. Commissariat-General.

No. 2. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Eight Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. (No. 76.) Downing Street, 22nd September, 1865. SIR, — (Eeceived at Wellington, Bth December, 1865.) I have received from Earl de Grey, and forward to you, the enclosed Despatch from General Cameron respecting the purchase at Waitotara, and request you will have the goodness to furnish me with your report upon the subject of that purchase. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. EDWAED CAEDWELL.

July 7, 1865

Enclosure in No. 2. Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron, to the Secretary or State foe Wae. (No. 136.) My Lord, — Head Quarters, Auckland, 7th July, 1865. I have the honor to forward to your Lordship a copy of a letter from Sir George Grey, dated 9th ultimo, and copy of my reply thereto, relative to a remark made by me in a private note to His Excellency on the subject of the purchase of the Waitotara block. But for the correspondence which Sir George Grey himself has originated, I should not have thought it necessary to trouble your Lordship on such a subject, but I now think it right to communicate to you the account of the purchase of the Waitotara block I received at Whanganui soon after the commencement of military operations in that district. Until recently the Kai-iwi formed the northern and eastern boundaries of the settlement of Whanganui, though as far back as the year 1859 negotiations had been opened with the Natives, for the purchase of the land lying between the Kai-iwi and Waitotara Eivers which is called the Waitotara Block. In the first agreement for the purchase of the block, in which Mr. McLean acted on behalf of the Government, the Natives reserved certain portions for their own use, which was agreed to on behalf of the Government, and £500 was paid to the Natives as earnest money. Before, however, the purchase was completed, objections were made by the agent of the Government to the large extent of the Native reserves, though they had been clearly defined when the money was paid on account, in consequence of which tho Natives brought in the £500 to Whanganui, desiring to return it and be off the bargain ; but this was declined by the Government Agent. In November, IS6O, after the war had broken out at Taranaki, Colonel Browne, theu Governor of the Colony, very properly put a stop to further negotiations on account of the unsettled state of the district. No further steps were taken in the matter until September, 1862, when Dr. Featherston, Superintendent of the Province, in treaty with a Chief named Eio, and another Chief, made a second agreement with certain Natives, by which the extent of the reserves was reduced, but without the consent of some of the Natives who had signed the first agreement. (The names of the Natives who signed each agreement are given in the papers which have been published on the subject in the Blue Book, which I herewith enclose.) The purchase of the block was finally completed by Dr. Featherston in July, 1863, after the commencement of hostilities at Taranaki, and when the greater part of the Northern Island was in a state of insurrection. The land was then hurriedly sold, without the usual notice by advertisement, to a few speculators in Wellington, at ten shillings an acre, —the sum realised being £13,000, the amount paid to tho Natives being £2,500. Hare Tipene and other Chiefs protested against the sale at the time, and gave warning that they would oppose by force any attempt on our part to occupy the reserved land. The Government, anticipating opposition to the occupation of the block, commenced a road from Whanganui to the Waitotara, with the object of facilitating the military operations which they foresaw would result from the disputes about the purchase of the iand. To the construction of this road the Natives made no serious opposition until it reached the boundary of a section of the land reserved by

June 9, 1865. Juno 12, 1865,