G.—2

VII

3. To cut three, or perhaps four, broad lines through the forest, the whole depth of the reserve, for access to the back country, in such a way as to meet the tribal rights of each hapu, and not to interfere with the settlements and cultivations. 4. To lay off within the reserve, sites for saw-mills and the supply of buildingtimber, fencing, and firewood, whenever settlers are placed upon the Plains; and to set apart sufficient land for the establishment and maintenance of Native schools. 5. To proclaim the 25,000 acres,, when marked off, as being inalienable reserves, so long as the Natives live there in peace. 6. To ascertain, as was promised, the tribal ownership of the several hapus, so as to be ready, whenever they themselves consent, to subdivide their reserves and give them titles under Crown grant. 7. To allow no dealings whatever with any part of the Reserve, except occupation by the resident Natives, until this ownership is ascertained, and regulations made under which such dealings can take place without danger. In laying out the Continuous Reserve, its front boundary on the plain should be a line which will be the main road from Normanby to the Township of Manaia, and then on to Oeo. Special care is necessary in this boundary, to avoid a repetition of a difficulty that happened last year; for it is dangerously absurd to let a question on which may hang the peace of the country be subordinated as it might be by surveyors to the question of the easiest point at which to ford a stream or make a road. The line of this front boundary should be cut from both ends at once, Oeo and Normanby. We ask Your Excellency to observe that we do not propose the whole of the land in the reserve should be given to the Natives. There are parts of the forest fronting the open plain where there are neither villages nor clearings, and where it may one day be advisable to dispose of some of the land; and what we look to most in the long run, is that along the line which we should make the back boundary, land now dense forest may gradually become occupied by a series of small-farm settlements, extending to the branch railway which Parliament has sanctioned to connect Opunake Harbour with the main line. But the most essential point of all is, that the General Government should resolutely keep every acre of the reserve under its own control, until the Native villages are enclosed within broad belts of clearing, which shall take from the inhabitants their power of disappearing at pleasure in the recesse's of the forest, and give us the strategical command of the whole coast. There is one other matter connected with the question of the Plains which we recommend being immediately settled ; namely, the grants to the chiefs Hone Pihama and Manaia. As to Manaia's grant, there does not appear to have been a specific promise to him either of extent or locality; but the Civil Commissioner contemplated an aggregate of about 1,500 acres for him, and there will be no difficulty in defining the locality when we return to the district. As to Hone Pihama's grant, the promise originally made to him in 1868 by Sir E. Stafford's Government was a large one: it was, that as soon as peace was restored all his land should be returned to him as far as possible. Sir D. McLean, afterwards promised him a grant of 1,100 acres for himself between the rivers Oeo and Ouri, besides a tribal reserve of the same extent for his people. Later on, Mr. Sheehan seems to have contemplated giving him 1,500 acres, and a like amount for his tribe. Lastly, Pihama asked to be allowed to exchange the land between the rivers for land on the southern side of the Oeo, where he has spent a large sum in buildings and Improvements; to which Mr. Sheehan agreed. He has had only promises, none of which are yet fulfilled. We recommend that the piece of land between Oeo and Wahamoko seaward of the main road, containing about 1,100 acres, should be granted to him at once, as well as the land he has fenced and cultivated on the inland side of the road, which may amount to 300 or 400 acres more; and that the tribal reserve for his people to the same amount, between Oeo and Ouri, should be also surveyed now, and made inalienable.