a—2

IX

We have, then, altogether, rather more than 143,000 acres of good land subject only to the question of merger of the awards. The amount of our liability for these depends, as we have often said, on the question of merger in tribal restorations ; but, as the awards exercisable south of Stoney River were 15,600 acres, while 800 acres of this will merge in the Continuous Reserve, the total liability will at any rate be under 15,000 acres, and probably much less. It will be quite safe to say that we shall have in all 130,000 acres in the two divisions, of which 30,000 will be open country : and all of it fit for settlement. With regard to the value of the land that is left to us, it was our business in the First Report to dispel an old delusion about the vast sums that would come in one day from sales of land; _),nd we showed, in regard to the Parihaka Block especially, that it was an illusory idea to think of appreciably replacing out of it the expenditure going on. Though we have increased our estimate of the good land left in the Waimate Plains division, we have hardly to alter what we said to Your Excellency in March. Taking the valuations of Mr. Humphries, the Chief Surveyor, given to us in evidence, the money that can fairly be looked for does not after all amount to much. The first schedule given by Mr. Humphries deals with the land between Stoney River and Waingongoro, and he valued the whole at about £675,000. Deducting from this, first, the two blocks returned to Matakatea and Ngamahanga, valued at £100,750 but since more carefully at £105,500, and, secondly, the Parihaka and Waimate Plains reserves valued at £183,500, these together make a total of £289,000 to be taken off the £675,000, leaving only £386,000 as the probable sum to be received between Stoney River and Waingongoro. Then, taking Mr. Humphries's second and third schedules, which deal with the confiscated territory inland, it will be seen that after deducting about £22,000 for land that will be wanted for the awards north of Waitara, not more than £233,000 can be added to the £386,000 we have just mentioned. It would be rash, we think, to put the value of all that is left to us within the confiscation as high as threequarters of a million. Now it certainly has cost the country a great deal more than that, (2.) Other Things to be Considered. But if in neither value nor extent is there very much in the land that will be left to the Crown when its engagements are redeemed, it Avould be a mistake only to look at the Crown land as the means of furthering the settlement of the country. We think the Native reserves may and will do it quite as much. Now all through these years the reserves have not been properly managed; to speak more correctly, they have never been managed at all. There has been a Native Reserves Commissioner, who every session sends in a report which is solemnly laid before both Houses. There never is anything in it. The vast estate which will be secured to the West Coast Natives must henceforth be looked after in quite another way. At the first meeting we had with the Natives in February, we told them how we should advise Your Excellency. "When the time comes that settlers shall be placed upon the Plains, there will arise in both races a desire to. have leases given of part of the reserves. This will be right, in order that the Native owners may on this [the northern] side of Waingongoro be receiving income from their land as the people on the other side of the river are doing. But the Commission has seen that because these leasings on the other side were done without care or supervision, it has happened that land has been let without its value being known. Now our advice to the Governor will be that whenever the Natives desire to let any part of the land reserved for them, it should be done under regulations to be carefully considered hereafter, in order that the rents from any land that is let to Europeans may go to the proper owners, that the full value of the land may be got for them, and that large tracts should not fall into the hand of one man. Then also will be the time for a plan to be settled for the establishment of schools, jn order that the Native children may be brought up with the same advantages

Chief Surveyor, Tables given in Evidence, Q. 940, p. 63.

Ibid.

Speech of the Commissioners at Oeo, 20 Feb. 1880, Evid. p. 6.