G—2b,

8

Kumutoto, £200; Pipitea, _?200; Tiakiwai, £30; Pakuao, £10; Kaiwarawara, £40; Waiweta, £100; Waiariki, £20 ; Oterango, £20 ; Ohau, £20 ; Tikimaru, £10 ; and the following sums were offered and refused —the Hutt, £300; Ohariu, £190; Pitoni, £30; and Ngauranga, £30. Of the unpaid balance, £400 was subsequently paid by direction of Governor Fitzroy in November, 1844, to Rauparaha and Rangihaeta for the claims of the Hutt district. Out of the fifteen tribes or families claiming compensation eleven received payment, and executed the necessary release of all their claims. The same form as that signed by the people of Te Aro, of which the followmg is a copy, was adopted in all the other cases, viz.—" We have received on the 26th of the days of February, in the year 1844, from the Directors of the company at London, the payment being made by AVilliam Wakefield, the agent of the Company, £300 of money, a full payment, a full satisfaction, an absolute surrender of all our title to all our claims in all our land, which are written in the document affixed to this, viz. all the places at Port Nicholson and in the neighbourhood of Port Nicholson, in New Zealand, and on the other hand the pahs, the cultivations, the sacred places, and the places reserved will remain alone for us, and we consent ourselves to write in a land conveying document hereafter, if asked to write them, to the Directors of the said Company, of all our claims within the said lands, the only places left for us are those above mentioned." Governor Fitzroy was present during the two first clays the Court of Land Claims sat at AVellington after the arbitration was resumed in February, 1844, and, after addressing the Natives assembled through Mr. Forsaith, caused the foregoing documents to be read by Mr. George Clarke to the Natives of Te Aro. His Excellency also explained to the Natives through the same medium that the payment about to be made in compensation for land purchased some time before, was made by Colonel Wakefield as the agent of the New Zealand Company, on behalf of whom he purchased it, and that Mr. Commissioner Sjiain was appointed by the Queen to inquire into and decide finally on all these questions. In March, 1845, Mr. Spain made his final award in the following terms :— "I, AVilliam Spain, Her Majesty's Commissioner for investigating and determining titles and claims to land in New Zealand, do hereby determine and award that the Directors of the New Zealand Company in London and their successors, are entitled to a Crown Grant of 71,900 acres of land, situate, lying, and being in the district or settlement of Port Nicholson, or Wanganui Atera, in the southern division of NewZealand. The country land comprising 708 sections of 100 acres each, making together 70,800 acres, and the town land comprising 1,100 acres, which said land and the several districts in which it is situated are more particularly set forth and described in the schedule contained in Enclosure No. 3 of this report, which said schedule was agreed and determined upon on the Bth day of February, 1844, between Colonel William AVakefield, the principal agent of the New Zealand Company, for and on behalf of that body on the one part, and George Clarke, the younger, protector of aborigines for and on their behalf on the other part, and are delineated and set forth upon the accompanying plan to this report annexed marked Enclosure No. 12. Saving and always excepting as follows :—All the pahs and burial places and grounds actually in cultivation by the Natives, situated within any of the said lands hereby awarded to the New Zealand Company as aforesaid, the limits of the pahs to be the ground fenced in around the Native houses, including the ground in cultivation or occupation around the adjoining houses without the fence, and the cultivations are those tracts of country which are now used by the Natives for vegetable productions, or which have been used by the aboriginal Natives of New Zealand since the establishment of the Colony; and also except the 39 Native reserves of 100 acres each, and the 110 town acres, which said Native reserves are also set forth in the said schedule, and delineated upon the said plan except the two Native reserves of 100 acres each marked upon the said schedule as Native reserves reserved." In August, 1844, Mr. Spain held a court at Nelson to investigate the Company's claims to that district, and subsequently awarded to the Company the whole of the land claimed with the exception of the Wairau, subject to the same reservations as regards pahs, &c, as are contained in the award made of the Port Nicholson district, with the exception only that the Native reserves as defined, to be one-tenth of the 151,000 acres granted. It was found on examination that, besides the articles alluded to in the deeds as forming the consideration paid by the Company for these lands to the signing parties, Captain Wakefield immediately on his arrival with the preliminary ex2>edition, assembled the resident Natives of the several districts in the vicinity of Nelson, and made them presents ot merchandize to the value of £980 15s. Od. A further payment of £800 was also made to the Natives by the Company during the investigation, and sanctioned by Mr. Spain. This sum was looked on as an act of grace and good will on the part of the Company towards tho Natives as the price of future peace. In May, 1844, Commissioner Spain held a court at New Plymouth to investigate the claims of the New Zealand Company to that district, and eventually awarded them a block of 60,000 acres upon payment of £200 to be applied for the benefit of the resident Natives, subject to the same reservations with regard to pahs and cultivations similar to those in the other awards, and also excepting all the Native reserves equal to one-tenth of the 60,000 acres awarded to the Company. In the Whanganui award the Company upon payment of £1,000 to the Natives of that district were declared entitled to a grant of 40,000 acres, subject to exceptions and reserves in favor of the Natives similar to those in the Port Nicholson award, to one-tenth of the 40,000 acres and to some rights of fishery in certain pieces of water specified in the award. It appears that by subsequent arrangements that most of the Company's reserves at AVhanganui were either amalgamated or thrown up in lieu of other lands taken for the purpose, at the final completion of the Whanganui purchase iv May, 1848, see Mr. M'Lean's report of September, 1848, in land purchase report 11 r. 1861, c. No. 1. The claims of the Company to Porirua were disallowed. In the Manawatu award the Company were declared entitled to 100 acres, and in consideration of the payment made by Captain Smith on the part of the Company amounting to £1000 they were declared to be entitled to the block of land at Manawatu described in the memorandum of sale. On the 29th July, 1845, Crown Grants were issued by Governor Fitzroy to the Company in precise