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Memorandum for the Hon. the Native Minister. The writer lives at Te Hoe-a-Tanui, Upper Piako, and his writing from Te Awaiti, three miles from Okahukura, is evidence to my mind that these people have been reinforced, as the half-caste woman yesterday informed me.—EW.P.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1. Judgment. Ho.vni Nave, of Kirikiri, opened the day's proceedings by reading the judgment, which is as follows:— The Ngatikoe 1 s Action. —lt has been proved that Titniha was wrong in connection with the ownership of the land. 1. He was wrong in not stating to Mr. Wilkinson that Tangitcuha and Kirituna wore included in the block Ngatikoe proposed to sell to the Government. He stated that Pukehanga was all the land he was selling. 2. His keeping hidden (or misrepresenting) tho boundary known as Owhakatina, and his stating that the kahikatea tree was the boundary, was wrong, many witnesses having stated during this inquiry that that boundary was Owhakatina. 3. At one time he slated that the boundary line of his ancestors ran in a zigzag direction, and at another time he said it ran in a straight lino. That is false. 4. The land at the southern boundary of his block, and which he calls Native land, is not so, as that is the Papa Block. The Government's Action. —The Government's action in advancing money on land not yet through the Court —viz., Pukehanga, Tangiteuha, and Kirituna (as no Crown grants had been ordered for those blocks) —was wrong. The Ngatihako's Action. —They have done wrong, as blood had been shed. This Committee is clear that the survey in which the European was shot was the Ngatikoe's survey. That is proved by Mr. Wilkinson, who states that nearly all the Ngatikoe Tribe took money on the land, which they sold under the name of Pukehanga. Mr. Wilkinson says those of Ngatikoe who were able to do so gave the boundaries of their land, and those who could not give the boundaries listened whilst others of their people did so for them, and none objected. The name they gave for their block was Pukehanga. Mr. Wilkinson gave the names of all who had taken advances on the block, and they turned out to be all Ngatikoe people; theroforo the Committee are satisfied that Ngatikoe were the cause of the survey, and that the survey was for the Pukehanga Block. The Committee see that the survey was being made by Ngatikoe and the Government conjointly, consequent on the Government buying Native lands before they have passed the Court; and it was on account of this system of land purchase that the trouble has arisen, and through this that the Chief Surveyor authorizes his surveyors to make surveys of land on which the Government have advanced money. Had not the Government made advances ou this land which is not through the Court, this trouble would not have arisen ; aud had they not paid money to Timiha and the rest of tho Ngatikoe, and authorized the survey, Timiha would not have had any money to have a survey of the land made, nor would the Chief Surveyor have authorized his men to survey it. Therefore the Committee consider that both Ngatikoe and tire Government are to blame, and they also consider that the Ngatikoe should give up two hundred acres of the Pukehanga Block for the European who was shot, as atonement for their wrong, in surveying the lands Tangiteuha aud Kirituna (adjoining Pukehanga), which are owned by the Ngatihako. The Committee consider that the shooting of the pakeha was wrong according to the English law, or according to the law or word of Hauraki, which provides that no blood should be shed within the Hauraki District. But the Committee, on looking at the matter, consider that there was a reason for shooting the European, which was the surveying by the Ngatikoe and the Government of a portion of the Ngatihako's land without their consent. Many survey parties had been turned off previously by Ngatihako without their discontinuing to survey ; but they at last got tired of turning them off, and although they used to take the surveyors' instruments they still persisted in surveying the laird ; and the reason why they shot a person in this case was in order to stop tho system of surveying. The Committee consider that the act would have been justifiable had the person who was shot been a Maori, but as it was a pakeha the Committee consider the act was wrong.
No. 2. Mr. E. W. Puckey to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sir,— Native Office, Thames, 20th September, 1879. I have the honor to supplement my former report, of tho 17th instant, as follows : — Upon receipt of the intelligence of the failure of Tukukino's mission, I proceeded at once to Paeroa and communicated with him. Having already imparted the same to you by telegraph, 1 need but to add tlrat to-day I have had a most satisfactory meeting with the whole of the Ngatitamatera Tribe, when they resolved unanimously to let the pakeha have a clear road, and not interfere with or or hamper them in any way in their efforts to capture Epiha and Pakara. Tukukino abandons the King party, but will continue a Hauhau; and he and the whole of his people will remain quietly at their homes. They express themselves as having no sympathy whatever with Ngatihako, who, lest the " Pai o Hauraki" be disturbed, should have yielded up the offenders to justice. i have, &c, E. W. Puckey, The Hon. the Native Minister, Wellington. Native Agent, Thames.
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