G.—3.

1873. NEW ZEALAND.

REPORT FROM MR. JAMES MACKAY, JUN.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of His Excellency. Mr. James Mackay, Junr., to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sir,— Cambridge, 10th July, 1873. I have the honor to inform you that in compliance with the request of the Honourable Mr. Vogel and the Honourable Dr. Pollen, I proceeded to Waikato on the 26th April last, to inquire into the circumstances of the murder of a man named Timothy Sullivan, on the Pukekura block, near Cambridge. I arrived at Cambridge on the evening of the 27th, and at once instituted inquiries about the murder and the causes which led to it. In order to properly understand the question, it will be necessary for me to draw attention to proceedings about the lands of the Ngatihaua tribe, and certain overt acts committed by the Hauhau portion of them, antecedent to the date of the murder of Timothy Sullivan. Prior to the Taranaki war in 1860, the Ngatihaua tribe numbered from six to seven hundred fighting men ; of these only about seventy under the chiefs Te Eaihi and Hakiriwhi Purewa remained loyal after the commencement of hostilities in 1863 ; the others, led by Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi (William Thompson) and other influential chiefs, joined in the rebellion. At that period the landed estate of the tribe may be fairly estimated at four hundred thousand acres. Of this they lost by confiscation under " The New Zealand Settlements Act," about one hundred and fifty thousand acres, of the remainder one hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred and forty-five acres have been alienated either by sale or lease to Europeans, leaving a balance in their possession of ninety thousand nine hundred and sixty-five acres, of which about fifty thousand acres are claimed by the Ngatitunerangi hapu, who are now hostile to Ngatihaua, leaving about forty thousand acres for the Ngatihaua proper. In addition to the above, the loyal portion of the tribe received out of confiscated lands fifteen thousand acres of very valuable land at Tamahere, and the rebels who surrendered had ten thousand acres reserved for them at Tauwhare, adjacent to that place. The alienation of lands to Europeans was in some instances sanctioned by William Thompson and other influential chiefs, but as a general rule the loyal Natives were the vendors or lessors of the tribal estate. The Ngatihaua as a people are addicted to drunkenness and are great spendthrifts, the consequence is that of the fifteen thousand acres at Tamahere awarded to them by the Compensation Court in 1867, about twelve thousand acres have been conveyed in fee simple to European settlers ; and although, as before shown, the undisputed tribal estate now held by the Hauhau division of the tribe is only about forty thousand acres, the loyal Natives urge their claims to it also. The result of these proceedings is that a bad feeling has been engendered between the Hauhaus and friendly people of the tribe. The present strength of the Hauhaus of Ngatihaua is about one hundred and seventy fighting men, and of the friendly portion (including surrendered rebels) about one hundred men, of whom the last-mentioned have received land within the confiscated district, from which those who have stood aloof are debarred from participating in. Having thus sketched the former, and present position of the Ngatihaua tribe, it will be desirable for the future to confine my comments to the Maungatautari, Pukekura, and Puahue blocks, and the various proceedings taken about these, and the acts of the hostile portion of the tribe with respect to them. About 1866, Captain fnow Major) Wilson, of Cambridge, entered into arrangements for leasing the Pukekura and Puahue blocks from the friendly portion of the Ngatihaua tribe, and Mr. Hamlin negotiated for a lease of the Maungatautari block. Mr. E. E. M. Campbell was engaged to survey the whole of these, and, according to his evidence subsequently given in the Native Land Court, he met with no opposition in surveying, except in the case of Pukekura, where Te Tumu and Mohi (Hori te Tumu, and Mohi Purukutu, the murderers of Sullivan) objected—the former "to the survey of the internal divisions of the block, and the latter, because the block was outside tho Government boundary " (confiscated line). (Vide Evidence, Pukekura case, Enclosure A). The surveys being completed, a sitting of the Native Land Court was duly gazetted to be held at Cambridge on the 17th October, 1866, to investigate the title to the Maungatautari block. The Court sat, Chief Judge Penton presiding, and Hetaraka Nere, and Henri Matini, assisting as Native Assessors. A complaint had been forwarded ome (I was then Civil Commissioner) that certain Ngatiraukawa and Arawa counter-claimants had