CONFISCATED LANDS.

5

C—No. 4.

that has taken place through the excess of births over deaths. This, throughout the district from Tarawera River to Torere, has amounted in five years to 119 individuals. (J.) 148 rebels, of various tribes, who have surrendered since, have been provided for. (c.) 2,411 acres have been given to 173 Ngaitai, as old surrendered rebels. This is the carrying out of an arrangement made after I ceased to act for the Government. (d.) The lands of this class are being further subdivided into 67 lots. (e.) Of which it is proposed finally to dispose of 64 lots, containing 43,368 acres, by issuing Crown grants for them as soon as the necessary surveys are complete. (J\) The remaining three lots, covering 61,584 acres, to be proclaimed in the New Zealand Gazette, under the provisions of the third and fourth clauses of " The Confiscated Lands Act, 1867," which gives power, by Proclamation, to make reserves for surrendered rebels and friendly Natives. I include the friendly Natives, as some' few of them are principals, and equally concerned, in the agreements of the 14th December, 1886, and the 11th March, 1867, which aiFect these lands. The result of the foregoing alterations and adjustments is, that 1,717 surrendered rebels are now entitled to sixty-seven lots or blocks of land, containing 104,952 acres, i.e., an average of 61 acres each. I have here to remark, that about 60 friendly Natives were unavoidably included in the surrendered rebels' agreements above referred to; which agreements were however necessary, the New Zealand Settlements Acts notwithstanding. I have now to refer to the two unsettled cases first mentioned in this Report. They are connected with section (_/) of this class, and consist of the undefined boundaries between Ngatipukeko and Ngatiawa at Whakatane, and between Ngatipukeko and Te Pahipoto Tribe, in the hills south of Te Tiringa Mountain. I would have fixed these boundaries myself formerly, but my action was forestalled by the passing of the fifth clause of " The Confiscated Lands Act, 1867," when I abstained from infringing on what I believed had become the duty of the Native Land Court; and this, on inquiry, I found to be the view of the Government at that time. Hence, I was obliged to decline to lay down their boundary when urged by Ngatipukeko and Ngatiawa to do so, at a meeting at Kokohinau, in 1868, for they could not even then agree among themselves on a boundary. Nor can Ngatipukeko and Ngatiawa agree mutually to a boundary now: of this I am convinced, having endeavoured, thoroughly in conformity with my instructions, to induce them to do so. While Wepiha was absent at Napier, I got the Ngatiawa to discuss the matter, and to meet the Ngatipukeko twice in long debate, —old Tukehu coming from Kokohinau to assist. But after Wepiha's return, they notified, at a short meeting, that they would not enter into any arrangement about confiscated lands. They were going to take some action of their own, and in the meantime declined to take a single step of any other kind in the matter ; but it leaked out at the meeting that they would petition Parliament. I. of course, reminded them that this was a matter of dividing land already in their possession, not a question of getting more land from Parliament; but they were bent on some new idea, and deaf to everything else. After this, some of Ngatipukeko hesitated, and nearly all ceased to urge the division in the manner they did formerly. They probably wish to see how the petition will succeed; some of them perhaps are parties to it; and they appear to try to get on smoothly with Ngatiawa. The lull is, however, most likely merely temporary, and the subject will force itself again on the attention of the Government; in which case, the Government will, I think, be able to settle the matter, by drawing the line that the Natives themselves are unable to fix. There will never be an end of their disputes and complications until this is done; and had my instructions gone as far, I would have run a boundary from the river to the Government line in the swamp to the westward, so shaped as to give to Ngatipukeko the whole of Pepuaruhu and Kakahotoa, and to Ngatiawa all Te Pukeroa and Te Pahi, the large overlapping Patuwai element being separately treated. The Patuwai are connected with both parties, and have land on both sides of the boundary, but though a large hapu (98), they are always amenable to reason. Such boundary would run parallel to, and 10 chains south of, a line from the mouth of Panekeka Stream to the eastern extremity of the Ngatiawa wall, on Te Pukeroa Island; thence at the same distance it might be made to run parallel to the course of said wall, continuing in that direction (after passing the wall) until it strikes the Government line in the swamp. But the bearing of the second line from the point 10 chains south of the east end of the wall should be more southerly, if it be necessary to bend it so, in order to include the whole of Te Pahi to Ngatiawa. No person knows that this is my opinion excepting the surveyor, whom I took on the ground to point out to him the localities, and to have an understanding in case I should find it necessary to write to him hereafter on the subject. The reason for moving the boundary 10 chains to the South would be to make up to, Ngatiawa the land lost by them by the awards of the Compensation Court at Paepuhou. The question of the other boundary, unlike the last, will rather improve by keeping. There is no dispute or ill feeling whatever involved; but it is one of those Native matters that, being moved occasionally, come right of themselves in time. The circumstances are these : —TV hen the agreements were made five years ago, the Natives on both sides asked to be allowed to settle this boundary themselves. The two parties however never even mentioned a boundary, and I began to see that neither cared to disturb the entente cordiale by proposing one; meanwhile " The Confiscated Lands Act, 1867," was passed, and the affair appeared to pass out of my province. Such was the state of the case until lately, when Te Uhi (for reasons of his own) came and told me the boundary and the " take " for it. On this, I conferred with the principal Ngatipukeko chief, Kaperiere, who approved the boundary, but doubted whether Tukehu, chief of the Pahipoto, would accept it. I however went to see Tukehu, and found him at Tarawera, away from the influence of Tiopira Hukiki, a designing chief of great ability, who has much sway with Tukehu, and as a rule opposes Government measures, sometimes openly and sometimes while pretending to support them. '2