G.—7

3

We are delating before you, the Honorable Members of Parliament, the wrongs we suffer, relying firmly upon your honor and love of fair-play for you to redress them, and take under your protection the semi-paupers and orphans of the Middle Island. This is all. From the Natives assembled at Kaiapoi, this 25th March, 1874, and others. [Here follow the signatures.]

No. 2. To His Excellency the Marquis of Noemajtby, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of New Zealand, Wellington. Ik April, 1875, we, the Natives of Moeraki, Waitaki, Arowhenua, &c. (as distinct from the Natives south of Port Chalmers) presented a humble petition to your Excellency praying that the deed (Kemp's, 1848) upon which the New Zealand Government is founding its tenure of about twenty millions of acres in the Middle Island, be made the subject of a trial, having been come to by illegal means. Since that, July 19th, 1875, we received a communication (N. &D. 75/3242—N0. 221) from Mr. Clarke, informing us that your Excellency had the goodness to appoint Judge Williams to investigate the subject of our above-mentioned petition. A twelvemonth has now expired, and Judge Williams has not yet announced his intention to appoint a time for a hearing of those few remaining old chiefs who were actors in these transactions in the year 1848, and whose depositions are indispensable in the trial of our case, as these circumstances— the threats and intimidations resorted to by Commissioner Kemp in 1848—have found no place, no ventilation in the books of this colony, for reasons which are laying on the surface of the matter. We humbly wish to bring to your Excellency's consideration, that the denial of a trial of these our grievances emanating not from Her Majesty's representative but from the Colonial Ministry of the day, as an interested party, has been the invariable rule in the dealings between the Government and us Natives, first, because we are few, and bring no pressure to further our demands of justice ; and secondly, these material witnesses being now well stricken in years, a short space of time will efface all evidence on the subject by their death. We utterly despair of any trial being instituted by the New Zealand Government in this matter, and, as a last resort, we intend to take up our residence on the inland of this island, the purchase of which land has never been accomplished either by Commissioner Kemp or Mantell. We humbly lay this our intention at your Excellency's feet, that should we be mistaken in the atitude of the present Colonial Ministry, your Excellency, by communicating to us any reliable hope of action in the matter, may allay that anxiety which is spurring us to our present tentative step above referred. Tour Excellency's most obedient and humble petitioners. Arowhenua, 3rd May, 1876.

No. 3. Mr. Fenton to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sir,— Native Lands Court Office, Auckland, 10th July, 1876. I have the honor to enclose my report on the petition of Ngaitahu; also extracts of the minutes of the Native Lands Court, and other papers, which I trust you will find correct. I have, &c, The Hon. Sir D. McLean, K.C.M.Q-. E. D. Fenton.

Enclosure in No. 3. Eepoet. This report applies to the land comprised in the operations of Messrs. Wakefield, Kemp, Hamilton, Symonds, and Mantell, and excludes the northern part of the island, to which the petition does not relate. The petition alleges,— 1. That the Native sellers of the Middle Island were promised that one acre in every ten should be returned to them, under an arrangement made with Mr. Wakefield in 1844. 2. That Mr. Kemp obtained the signatures to his deed by intimidation. 3. That the boundaries of the land are wrongly set forth in the deeds. 4. That Mr. Mantell caused the Natives to yield their territory by threats. 5. That at the sitting of the Native Lands Court they were ignorant of their rights, and of the mode of enforcing them; and that that tribunal was inefficient, as evidenced by its failure to deal satisfactorily with the Princes Street Eeserve. G. And generally, that the chiefs who signed the deeds were unaware of what they were doing, and should not be held to have transferred territory of enormous value, to the detriment of their more intelligent children. I have to remark that, —