0.-4.

6

signed, and now at the Registration Office. The Ahuroa block extends from previous purchases, south of the Waiters River, to the Patea River, part of a very fine district. The Otoia block is valuable, on account of its proximity to the Patea township. A large block named Mangaotuku has been surveyed in the interior, estimated to contain 58,900 acres of fine land, with a great deal more adjoining, of which district the surveyor, Captain Skeet, reports most favourably for settlement; the whole of which there are good prospects of acquiring, as fast as the work can be carried on. Twelve Natives, with the chief, Rangihekeiho, from Ngatimaru, came in a fortnight ago with proposals in reference to the district referred to, extending northwards towards Taumatamahoe and Tahoroparoa; eastward, towards Wanganui River. A small block, Mangaehu (offered by the young chief, Tito Hanataua), 560 acres, by the Patea River, has been surveyed. Another block, on both sides of the Patea River, has been surveyed by'a Manutahi section of the Ngatihine; area, 11,870 acres. There are other blocks abutting the Patea River under offer, and waiting to be surveyed. There is also a block under offer on the east side of the Whenuakura River, inland. For this last block, I have paid an advance of £53. As a rule, I am opposed to paying advances before the land is surveyed; but there are cases when it would be impolitic not to do so, as in the case of the Whenuakura block. When I was last at Patea, a deputation from the Whenuakura, section of the Ngarauru, under Tongamihi, one of the most influential land claimants, waited upon me with a proposal to cede a block of land, and asked for an advance, as an earnest of their determination. I at first refused, but Hone Pihama and Taurua, who were present, strongly recommended me to give them an advance, as they considered Tongamihi's offer, from his position in the tribe, to be of great importance, as a check on another section of Ngarauru, living at Waitotara, who have shown a disposition to be troublesome; and that a sale of the Whenuakura land would simplify negotiations now pending. I enclose herewith a rough sketch map, showing the positions of the different blocks which have been surveyed, and also the Patea River, the survey of which I have already reported on, and which will very materially assist and simplify future surveys in that part, intermediate and adjacent blocks. Applications for a sitting of the Native Land Court were sent to the Chief Judge on the 23rd March last by Natives claiming in the Kaharoa, Mangaotuku, and Mangaehu blocks, these blocks being outside the confiscation boundary. The Putekino block, recently surveyed by Ngatihine, is also outside the confiscation boundary, and will have to pass through the Court. From Waitotara to the Patea River, between the military settlers' land and the fine district referred to in the interior, there is some very broken country which connects with a ridge or watershed inland of Whenuakura, named Matemateaonge, which watershed, according to Native report, continues unbroken in a northerly direction to the vicinity of Tongariro. It is between this watershed, the Waitara River, and Mount Egmont, where there is so much fine country. I have, &c., The Under Native Secretary R. Parris, (Land Purchase Branch), Wellington. Civil Commissioner. By Authority: Gbobsb Didbbuit, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB76. Price 6d.]