AND NATIVE MATTERS AT THE THAMES.

7

A.—No. 19.

3rd, It had been remarked that the King's mana was over that land; if that was the case, who had dragged the King's mana on to the land of the Queen Natives ? Pineaha replied by saying that the lands belonged to themselves and to the Queen Natives ; that they (the Hauhaus) had dragged the mana of the King on to the whole of Ohinemuri; also, that as the Hauraki lands, in which Queen Natives and Hauhaus both had an interest, had been ceded to the Government for gold-mining purposes, in accordance with the wish of Queen Natives, the Hauhaus considered themselves perfectly justified in holding this land back to please themselves. Honihi said : " When the sea is so smooth that the rat can swim in it, then the division of the interests of the Queen Natives and Hauhaus will be made —then the Queen Natives will be allowed to deal with their portions as they think proper. This Pakeha has seen Te Hira publicly. What I have to say is this, if he does not go to the ranges and send back the diggers who are up there, he must see Te Hira no more." His proposal Avas assented to by all the chiefs present. I asked if there was any one present who knew the whereabouts of the diggers in the ranges ; if there Avas, that he should come forward and tell me, in order that I might send to them and request them to remove ; that it would be quite useless for me to go myself and search for them. Te Koroneho, one of Ropata's young men, replied by saying that the country I Avould have to roam over Avould be very extensive indeed, and that it Avould take three months at least to make a thorough search; and that if I Avere away for anything near so long as that, the Hauhau party would say that I was stealing their gold. (This excited much merriment.) I proposed therefore to send out two Natives —one a Hauhau, the other a Queen Native—to search the ranges, and take a letter from myself, warning off the diggers. The Natives said, if you send out so small a party as that it will effect no good whatever, as the diggers will pay no heed to them ;it would be better to send out ten men :to Avhich I assented. As indifference to their wishes in this particular circumstance Avould most probably have resulted in my not seeing Te Hira again, I trust the Government Avill consider that I acted Avith judgment in sending out this party of ten men (at a daily rate of pay of ss. each). The Hauhaus at first Avished me to send out a party consisting solely of Queen Natives, lest the diggers might do some injury to the Hauhaus; but upon my pointing out to them that Want of success in finding the diggers Avould very probably be attributed by the Hauhau party to the indifference displayed by the Queen Natives in prosecuting the search, and that the better plan Avould be to have a party composed of both elements, each being in that case a watch over the actions of the other, they were very much pleased Avith the idea, and Te Hira expressed himself highly satisfied. On my way down the river from Ohinemuri to Shortland I called a meeting of the diggers at Te Puke (Thorpe's), and informed them of the reasons for my desiring to meet them. Some few of them expressed a determination not to leave under any circumstances, but the majority seeming open to conviction, I quietly pointed out to them the obvious harm their presence up there did to the cause in which we all alike felt a deep interest, and that unless they cleared out and left the way open for Mr. McLean, there was no prospect whatever of an early opening up of the country. At length, after a somewhat protracted interview, they told me, as the other party up at Te Paeroa had consented to leave if they on their part would leave, that they would be sorry to be themselves any obstruction in the way of the country being opened up, and would remove altogether from that part of the district for a time; but under this condition, that when Mr. McLean Avent up to Ohinemuri he Avould allow no diggers nor speculators to follow him, in order that all might have a fair and equal chance. I informed them that I felt 1 should be quite safe in giving them that guarantee. The diggers would not have agreed to leave had I not been in a position to assure them the Government would resist any aggression on the part of speculators. I omitted to mention that, in reply to what Te Hira said with reference to keeping the diggers aAvay and not allowing them to visit Ohinemuri, I told him that so long as Cashel, Andrews, or any one else in that neighbourhood, encouraged the diggers to come up and pitch their tents on their land, and whilst they confined themselves to merely camping on land belonging to the Pakeha, that there was no means of compelling them to leave ; also, that if, as was not improbable, the diggers rushed the district, their coming would be like the flowing up of the tide —they might as well think of keeping the tide out of the Waihou as keeping back the diggers. He replied : " You will not be able to prevent, and I will not be able to help it." In conclusion, I may as well state that since my last visit to Ohinemuri, four others of the Natives of this district have returned from following Te Kooti. lam told there are yet a few (three or four) of them with Te Kooti. I have, &c, E. W. Pucket, The Hon. the Native Minister, Auckland. Native Agent at the Thames.

No. 6. Mr. E. W. Pucket to the Hon. D. McLean. Civil Commissioner's Office, Sic,-— Auckland, 15th November, 1869. I have the honor to inform you that on Thursday last, Avhilst I was at the Thames, I was informed by W. H. Taipari that he had received a letter from Reihana Te Tahua, in which he was informed that a meeting had taken place at Ohinemuri, about the 4th instant, at which Te Hira and his people were all present. The Ohinemuri Hauhaus opened the business of the day by urging upon Te Hira, to cease from opposing any longer the opening up of the Ohinemuri country. He had, they said lands at Coromandel, from which he would shortly be in receipt of money; but as for them, they had no land beside Ohinemuri. Te Hira told them he would never give in. The whole of the Ohinemuri Hauhaus have left Te Hira, and come over to our side —only two women, Mere Kuru and Mere Titia (Taraia's daughter), being with him.