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Enclosure in No. 3. Mr. C. 0. Dayis to the TJndee Seceetaey, Native Department. Sic, — Ohinemutu, 15th June, 1876. In accordance with your telegram of the 23rd ultimo, requesting us to furnish a full report of all land purchase transactions in the district since the Ist of July last, we have the honor to record herein all points bearing on the subject named in your communication. As some of our documentary statements were transmitted to you early in July last, it may very considerably help you to understand our negotiations if citations be made from papers previously written; although some of the matters quoted may date anterior to that mentioned in your instructions. It may not be necessary to particularize our business, in the way of Maori meetings and other preliminaries transacted by us during the first few days of July, but we will extract portions of the report alluded to in a previous paragraph. Under date 10th July we remark: —" We have had some difficulties to encounter in our land-purchase operations, which at times threatened to bring about a collapse. Some of the Arawa chiefs, acting under the advice of Hawke's Bay tribes and their Pakeha friends, whose opposition to the present Government is well known, have, by petitions to the Assembly, by numerous letters and telegrams, and by various other means, endeavoured to stay our land proceedings in the Arawa country. The various petitions and other communications forwarded by the Arawas generally have been notable only for their gross misrepresentations. " Added to the wonted troublesomenoss of these Arawa tribes, their cupidity has been excited and their known character of dishonesty encouraged by private individuals, who persistently endeavour to lease and buy Maori lands within our district; although they well know that it is impossible under the circumstances to obtain a legal title ; and that by foolishly bargaining with the unscrupulous Arawa they are but wasting time and money; and no doubt, at some future period, when driven to their wits' ends they will fall back, as their predecessors have done, on the Government for compensation, with what show of justice remains to be seen. "We have pleasure in stating, however, that, notwithstanding the violence of the opposition, and the various obstacles referred to with which we have had to contend, land matters at present throughout the whole of our district, as far as our operations are concerned, are standing upon a most satisfactory basis ; and now that the Arawas have discovered that we unflinchingly adhere to the principles of truth and justice, and that their threats are either treated with indifference, or met by sound argument, their feelings have become somewhat mollified, and they now profess to be desirous of aiding the Government scheme, which indeed does not surprise us, as they are sufficiently intelligent to see that such a course will be advantageous to themselves." It will be remembered, perhaps, that we intimated in our last general report the probability of our success in respect to purchasing the block of land at Maketu known as Te Puke, in which case our operations would be extended to the Maketu flats, known as Te Papanui, Paengaroa, &c. We have to state that the proposed line of action we then ventured to suggest was carried out by us. We treated with the Waitaha and Tapuika tribes, to whom it is fully known these lands really belong ; and although the toa element raised its crest, our determined indifference towards the braves, on the grounds of justice, so thoroughly convinced them of the untenableness of their position, and the fictitiousness of their claims, that they agreed to confine their demands to a few hundred acres of worthless sandy soil near the sea coast, including Te Tumu, the famous battle-ground where Ngaiterangi were worsted. On procuring the signatures of the Waitaha and Tapuika tribes to our deeds, they warmly repudiated any claim whatever by the toa, stating that the Ngatiwhakaue and others claiming as toa put forward their fictitious demands for the purpose of extorting money, and taking advantage of the ignorance of Europeans as regards these Maori questions. With the above sayings and other arguments of our own showing the fallacies of the toa claims, the whole of the element suddenly collapsed, and we were told by the Ngatiwhakaue to go on with the ancestral claimants, but that as an act of grace, they hoped we would not overlook them. In justice to the braves generally, it becomes necessary to draw a line of demarcation between the two prominent sections, namely, the anti-leasing and anti-selling party, and those who have treated with us for the alienation of their lands. Of the former, the great leading personage is Te Pokiha Taranui, more commonly known as Eox, a man of indomitable pride. He carries with him only a small section of the Ngatipikeao tribe named Te Ngatikakinga, who are known to possess but small influence and very little land. The Ngatipikeao tribe, who are with the Government in the land scheme, comprise the large majority under the old chiefs Te Puehu, Te Mapu, Eotorangihoro, Te Matangi, Pita te Wharetoroa, and others. With this large section of Ngatipikeao range the tribes of Waitaha, Tapuika, Ngatipukonga, Ngatimoko, and many others. In fact, the real landholders generally throughout the Arawa country favour both selling and leasing their tribal lands ; and it is found that the opposing party, as a rule, have little- or no land either to sell or lease ; consequently the genuine owners of the soil view the acts and clamours of the anti-sellers with extreme bitterness. Throughout the Taupo District, we may say that the tone of feeling is in favour of Government; and although Henare Matua and other Hawke's Bay celebrities have sent their written and oral messages to the Taupo Natives, stirring them up to oppose any attempt on the part of the Crown to secure land in this district by purchase or lease, the machinations of the Napier chiefs have been unsuccessful, and their gratuitous opinions treated with profound indifference. During the month in which the foregoing extracts were written we visited Tokanu, and held a series of meetings with some of the resident chiefs relative to the main trunk road from Taupo to Whanganui and site for Native village school, which propositions were received approvingly by the principal chiefs present. On this occasion complaints were made to us in relation to the interference of Tareha and other Hawke's Bay chiefs with respect to the Mohaka Block, sold by the Taupo Natives to the Government, and declared to be their property exclusively, although the points mooted here were publicly discussed at a Native meeting held previously at Napier, when a sum of money on the Mohaka Block was paid to Tareha by request of deputations sent to Napier by the Taupo Natives. At the

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