C—4b.

1873. NEW ZEALAND.

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO CONFISCATED LANDS.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of His Excellency.

Copy of a letter from Lieut.-Colonel St. John to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sir,— Wellington, August 12th, 1873. In accordance with instructions received from you I have the honor to forward a general report upon confiscated lands. The report has been compiled from records both published and unpublished, and from what my own personal knowledge of the various districts has enabled me to learn. Where no actual surveys have been made, the estimated quantity of land has beeii arrived at by scaleiug j in these cases, therefore, the acreage given in the returns is only approximate. I have, <&c, The Hon. the Native Minister. J. H. H. St. John.

EEPORT ON CONFISCATED LANDS. Acts op the General Assembly in connection with Confiscation. On the 3rd December, 18G3, the New Zealand Settlements' Act was passed authorising the Governor in Council to declare districts to be under the Act, to set apart within these districts sites for colonisation, and to take for the purposes of settlement any land within these districts. The money to arise from sales of land under this Act, to be disposed of towards repaying the expenses of suppressing the insurrection and of forming settlements. (Section 19.) On the 13th December, 1864, an Act was passed relative to the Compensation Clauses in the Act of 18G3, and empowering the Governor in Council to award compensation or to increase compensation. On the 30th October, 1865, was passed the New Zealand Settlements Amendment and Continuance Act. This provided that no more land was to be taken after 3rd December 1867 ; laid down rules on compensation ; empowered the Governor to lay out land for sale for cash, and to grant land for military .and other services ; repealed the 19th section of the Act of 1863, and in its stead substituted the following—" Money arising from the sale and disposal of land in each Province under the said Acts of 18G3 and ■ 1864 and this Act, shall be paid to the Colonial Treasurer, and shall be applied in such manner as the General Assembly shall from time to time by any Act passed on that behalf direct." On the 16th June, 1866, the regulations for the Compensation Courts, under the New Zealand Settlements Acts, were gazetted. On the 10th October, 1867, was passed the Confiscated Lands' Act empowering the Governor to make reserves in confiscated lands for friendly Natives, for returned rebels, and for educational endowments ■ also to impose conditions or limitations upon grants; also to declare parts of confiscated lands to be subject to the Waste Land Law of the Province in which they lie. Confiscated Lands Considered by Districts. West Coast. The first mention of confiscation applied to these lands is contained in a proclamation of December 17th, 1864, which states that "the Governor will retain and hold as land of the Crown all tho land in the Waikato taken by the Queen's forces, and from which the rebel Natives have been driven. (Here follow the boundaries.) The land of those Natives who have adhered to the Queen shall be secured to them, and to those who have rebelled, but who shall at once submit to the Queen's authority, portions of the land taken will be given back for themselves and their families. The Governor will make no further attack on those who remain quiet. Those guilty of violence the Governor will punish as he has punished the Waikato tribes. The Governor will also take possession of and retain, in the country between Wangaiiui and New Plymouth, and in the Province of Taranaki, such land belonging to the rebels as he may think fit." The whole of the area indicated thus was subsequently defined by different Gazettes, and on the West Coast the two districts ot Ngatiruanui and Ngatiawa with their boundaries, which included the already proclaimed districts of middle Taranaki, Oakura, and Waitara South, were gazetted.