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29. Ka inoi tonu matou ki a koutou inaianei a mua atu hoki kia whakaarohia paitia ta matou pitihana c koutou inaianei i te wa c marama ana, tenei ake te po, te wahi c kore ai c tika te tangata te mahi. Na konei matou o koutou Kai Inoi ka tuku nei i tena Pitihana ki a koutou kia ata whiriwhiria paitia ta matou tono. A ka inoi tonu o koutou kai pitihana kite tohungia tatou katoa c te Atua. Heoi ano, na matou katoa, na o koutou hoa, Na Reha Apekahama. Me te 47 tangata atu. ■

[Translation ] To the Honorable Members of the House of Eepresentatives of the Parliament of the Colony of New Zealand, now assembled. Salutations to You ! The Petition of tiie undeesigned Aboriginal Natives or New Zealand, of the Disteict of Haueaki. Humbly showetii, — TnAT your petitioners are owners of land called Te Aroha, at Hauraki. Your petitioners pray that you, the members of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, will give careful consideration to ihe matters set forth in this petition, respecting their land, Te Aroha. 1. Thai land, IV Aroha, belongs to us alone, to our ancestors, to our hapu Ngatitumutumu, and to us, some of the members of the Ngatimaru tribe, wlio are included amongst ihe descendants of Ngatitnmutumu; and we and our hapus, who have permanently occupied this land, Te Aroha, from days long gone by up to the present day, have large interests in the laud, and we are still exercising acts of ownership on the land according to Maori custom. 2. No other hipus or tribes living at llauraki had any right or title whatever to this land, Te Aroha, according to Maori custom. 8. None of the other hapus or tribes living at Hauraki, or any other tribes, from time immemorial to the present, have driven off our ancestors or hapus, or have objected to their occupying from the beginning till now, and we are still living permanently upon our land, Te Aroha. 4. When the Native Land Court came into operation, an unauthorized [pokanoa] application was made to the Court by another tribe, not being of Hauiaki, with the intent that they, the Ngatihaua of Waikato, might be able to rob us of our land, Te Aroha, possibly that they might treat it as compensation for the confiscated lands in Waikato. However, they were defeated in the last Court that sat in respect of this land. 5. Your petitioners would point out to you, the Legislators for the two races living in the Colony of New Zealand, that it was James Mackay, Government Laud Purchase Officer, who placed all the tribes of llauraki upon our land. G. We mean that this placing of the tribes of Hauraki upon this land of ours by him has been effected by his paying money to different people of all the hapus of the tribes of Hauraki. 7. Be it remembered by your honorable House that the moneys paid by that Government Land Purchase Officer to those people were paid at the town of Shortland, and not paid by him upon this land, Te Aroha. 8 That Land Purchase Officer cannot take the bodies of these tribes upon our land to live there, and those persons are unable in the body to go to Te Aroha, and point out to that Land Purchase Officer their portions of the land for which they have received payment, because they know full well that neither they nor their ancestors had any right to that land, Te Aroha. 9. We assert that those tribes were rejoiced on account of the unnecessary payment to them by that Land Purchase Officer of the money for that land, Te Aroha, to which land they had no right; and they are also rejoiced at the needless payment to them by that Government Land Purchase Officer of liquor, flour, biscuit, sugar, tea, and European commodities for our land. 10 We pray you to place the responsibility for these goods or moneys upon those persons, so that they may enjoy the results of their gratification, which they evinced when their hands took the money and goods. IL. We would point out to you that our land, Te Aroha, is of very large extent; it is also land of good quality, and contains many thousands of acres; and for that reason the Land Purchase Officer heedlessly paid money to all the tribes of Hauraki. who had no title there, in order that the Government might get all the land, and that he might get his commission at 4d. per acre for landfi purchased by him for the Government. 12. That Lund Purchase Officer told the tribes at Hauraki that they all had an interest in Te Aroha through the name of Marutuahu, our ancestor, the Court having ordered the land to be granted through the name of Marutuahu. 18. We wish to explain this last statement. It was quite right that the name of our ancestor should be mentioned in connection with our land, but the right to use his name rests with us and not with any other hapu or tribe of Hauraki. 14. We will tell you the children of Marutuahu —Tatnatipo, head of the Ngatirongou ; Tamatera, head of the Ngatitamatera ; Whanaunga, head of tiie Ngatiwnanaunga; and also Te Ngako, to whom descended the name of their parent Marutuahu. We, the section of Ngatimaru, who are in this land, Te Aroha, are the descendants of Te Ngako. 15. Your petitioners are quite clear that the Court's decision was in favour of Marutuahu, and that ihe Court was quite clear that all his tribes would not have a strong title to this land. In part 4 of the 4th clause of the Judgment of the Court, pujlished in the Kahiti Extraordinary of the 4th August, 1871, it says,—

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