G.—3.

2

A glance at the map accompanying this report will show that the territory included in Kemp's purchase includes over two-thirds of the whole area acquired from the Natives in the North and Stewart's Island, the total quantity ceded being 37,774,1G0 acres, minus the land reserved for the Natives and 51,000 acres excepted from sale, exclusive of D'Urville Island and Ruapuke; and the aggregate amount paid was £27,417 155., out of which only £2,000 was given for the acquisition of the aforesaid territory. O. — Port Cooper Purchase. As a large portion of Banks Peninsula, irrespective of the French claim, was in the hands of the Natives in 1849, it became necessary, in order to secure Port Cooper as a harbour for the Canterbury settlement, to make arrangements to acquire the land from them for that purpose ; and Mr. Mantell was deputed by the Governmant to effect the purchase. This led to the acquisition of the above-named block in August, 1849, for the sum of £200, and a reservation of 859 acres for the Natives. H. — Port Levy Purchase. This purchase was effected in September, 1849, for the sum of £300, and the reservation of 1,361 acres for the resident Natives. The country included in the sale comprised all the tract of land to the eastward of the Port Cooper Block, and a line following the main range of the Peninsula, from Waikakahi at Lake Waihora to Pohutupa or Plea Bay, to the eastward of Akaroa Harbour. An attempt was also made to obtain the cession of the remainder of the Native claims to the Peninsula, without effect, owing to the determined opposition of the owners, who were actuated by the idea that the agent of the French Company, who had formerly purchased a portion of the country in the neighbourhood of Akaroa, would return and make them an enormous payment for their unsold land. I. — Hamilton's Purchase. This purchase included all the unsettled claims on Banks Peninsula which the Natives refused to settle in 1849. The terms ultimately agreed on were the payment of a money consideration of £150, afterwards increased to £200, and the reservation of 1,200 acres, in three blocks of 400 acres each, for the use and occupation of the Native owners; the question being finally and satisfactorily settled by Mr. J. W. Hamilton, in December, 1856. The total amount paid to the Natives for their claims to Banks Peninsula computes £700; but, in addition to this, they also had received from the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, in 1838, goods to the value of £234, for a block of land in the neighbourhood of Akaroa. J. — Otakow (Otago) Purchase. On the 31st July, 1844, the New Zealand Company, through the intervention of an officer appointed by the Colonial Government, acquired a block of 400,000 acres at Otago for £2,400, as a site for the New Edinburgh settlement, comprising all the tracts of country bounded by a range of hills to the north of Otago Harbour, and extending as far south as Tokata Point near the Nuggets ; the Maungaatua and Kaihiku ranges being the western boundary. Three exceptions were made within the Block for the Natives, viz.,—At Otago Heads, Taieri, and Te Karoro, containing in the aggregate land to the extent of 9,615 acres; one acre was also reserved for them at Pukekura, within the block reserved by the Company as a site for a lighthouse. Independent of the general reserves thus made, it was evidently intended at the time to select special Native reserves, as contemplated in the scheme of the other New Zealand Company's settlements; on which point Mr. Symonds, the officer who conducted the purchase, in his report dated 2nd September, 1844, writes as follows :■ —" I pursued the course, as regards Native reserves, from the firm conviction that the system heretofore adopted in other purchases of large tracts was beyond the comprehension of the aborigines ; and, at the suggestion of Colonel "Wakefield, I left the further choice of reserves, namely the tenth part of all land sold by the New Zealand Company, to be decided by His Excellency the Governor, without making any express stipulation with the Natives on the subject." According to the agreement entered into between the New Zealand Company and the Otago Association in 1847, the New Edinburgh settlement was to comprise 144,600 acres, a tenth of which would represent 14,460 acres. The term of purchase, however, between the Company and the Association precluded the possibility of any portion of the block of 144,600 acres being set apart as Native reserves ; but the Natives were nevertheless to have land reserved for them within the block to the extent named ; and ample evidence can be obtained, by a perusal of the Parliamentary papers and New Zealand Company's reports of that date, of the intention to make such reserves. K. — Murihiku Purchase. The tract of country comprised within this block included all the southern part of the South Island to the south of Kemp's and Symonds's purchases. The negotiations for the purchase were completed on the 17th August, 1853, for the sum of £2,600, after considerable difficulty, occasioned by the increased demands of the Natives, caused by the district being partly occupied by squatters, who had been endeavouring to allure the Natives with the offer of high rents not to sell their land to Government. The importance, therefore, of putting an end to this illegal state of affairs rendered the immediate acquisition of the country an object of paramount necessity. Eeserves for the Natives were made at the following places within the boundaries of the purchase, viz. Tuturau Omaui, One, Aparima, Oraka, Kawakaputaputa, and Onetota. L. — Stewart's Island. This island was acquired from the Natives on the 29th June, 1864, for the sum of £6,000, paid as follows : —£2,000 down ; £2,000 to be held by the Government at 8 per cent., the interest to be paid annually to certain Natives; and the remaining £2,000 to be expended in the purchase of lands in the Southland Province, as an endowment for educational and other Native purposes.