C—No. 4.

4

SETTLEMENT OF

For this duty you will be allowed, while engaged in Auckland in collecting evidence, a salary of £1 Is. per diem. Whilst in the Bay of Plenty, a period which it is anticipated will not exceed two months, your salary will be £2 2s. a day; and the General Government Agent in Auckland will be authorized to make you an advance of £50. I have further to desire that you will place yourself in communication with Mr. H. T. Clarke on any points connected with the adjustment of outstanding claims affecting the Natives, or with the getting apart of the reserves necessary for the Urewera or other Natives. 1 have, &c.j Donald McLean.

No. 3. Mr. J. A. "Wilson to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sib, —■ Remuera, Auckland, 29th March, 1872. I have the honor to report that I returned from the Bay of Plenty on the 21st instant, having visited that district in conformity with instructions received in your letter of the 13th November last. I have been absent in the district eighty-two days, during which time I have settled all the numerous matters having reference to confiscated lands that have from time to time arisen in those parts, excepting, however, two cases to be hereinafter referred to. As between the Government and the loyal Natives, there were but two matters that required settlement ; these have been arranged, and their surveys have been made. The claimants Ararna Karaka, chief of Ngatirangitihi, and Makuini, Tukehu's wife, claimed largely in several places. To each I gave 300 acres at Omeheu, a swampy district at Rangitaiki, in which they claimed an interest. Their claims had, unfortunately, never come before the Compensation Court, through no fault of claimants, but by some mistake they had been left out of the file of claims sent by the Colonial Secretary to the Judge. I, however, became aware of their existence, having seen them in the Native Office, and, knowing them to be extensive, I settled them in this manner. In addition to these were fourteen old awards that could not be surveyed formerly on account of the dangerous nature of the service. Mr. Pitcairn was, in fact, killed by a party of Te Kooti's men while engaged on it. The surveys of these awards are in hand at the present time, and will shortly be completed. The foregoing affairs were arranged without difficulty, and occupied comparatively little of my time. But that which delayed me in the district, and engaged my constant attention —giving, in fact, a good deal of trouble —was the unsatisfactory condition into which I found the land question generally had fallen, in so far as surrendered Natives were concerned with each other. Confiscated lands had been given to them formerly, for economical reasons, in an unsurveyed and undivided manner, and the complications that had arisen therefrom had become numerous, and were not to be easily settled. This observation applies to Ngaitai lands, to the lands at Opape and Whakatane, and to all the lands of that class in Bangitaiki, extending from Matata to Mount Edgecombe. These difficulties were more or less enhanced, especially among Ngatiawa tribes, by an indifference to Government action, or rather an avoidance of it. This new feature, I am informed, is due to. the promulgation of certain novel ideas regarding a restoration by Government of confiscated lands, tending to raise hopes and expectations in the minds of the Bay of Plenty Natives that unsettle them, and indefinitely thwart and postpone the action of Government in its efforts to divide their lands among them. Besides the above-mentioned sixteen lots, I have to report that I found — I. That there were many other lots and blocks of land contained in my forty-five Schedules for which Crown grants had yet to bo prepared and issued. 11. That all lands set aside for surrendered rebels had to be proclaimed or granted. In viewing the first of these classes, it appeared to me necessary to ascertain the point to which affairs had progressed before they became stationary, in order that I might, without confusion, put them in motion again from that point. To ascertain this, I was obliged to search the Registrar's Office with much care, because some of the deeds had been prepared at Wellington, also the Confiscated Lands Office in Auckland, and after several days so spent (during which I examined every Native deed in the Registrar's office, and inspected the particulars of all deeds, European and Native, that had been issued since 1867), I found that ninety-five grants had been signed or were awaiting signature, and that many of the former had been issued. That these grants also conveyed 3,309 acres to 152 grantees, in lots varying from a quarter of an acre to 200 acres each. This is what had been done, and having ascertained this point, I deemed it better to cancel the unaccomplished portions of the old schedules, to prevent embarrassment and future mistakes, and to start fair with a new series for 1872. The old series, therefore, of thirty-two schedules, has no force for the future ; their unperformed portions, with all subsequent alterations and arrangements, being contained in the new series. But the old schedules of Arawa lands at Te Awa-o-te-Atua are not cancelled. They form a separate series of thirteen schedules, and no such action is necessary in their case. That which under this head, however, I found remained to be performed, was, to prepare and issue eighty grants to 269 loyal grantees, for 96,261 acres, in lots varying much in size, and in some instances for large numbers of cestui que trusts, amounting in all to 1,074 persons. These are all contained in the new series of schedules, and in the Arawa series above referred to. In reference to Class 11. of Lands set aside for surrendered rebels, I may state that my arrangements, made nearly five years ago, comprised 102,101 acres, set aside in fourteen lots for 1,277 Natives. These arrangements, however, are now subject to alterations in the following manner:— (a.) In all cases, the census schedules have been re-adjusted to the increase of population