GL—2,

XLII

Major Brown had made a calculation that the sum to be divided among the tribe Avould be £1,000 for the country between Waingongoro and Kaupukunui, and _ £2,000 from Kaupukunui to the end of the survey near Oeo : an equal sum Avas to be paid for mana of the chiefs : and the Avhole Avas not to exceed £15,000. Some of the money, however, Avent in quite another Avay. On going into the expenditure charged against the acquisition of the Plains, the first thing that struck us was the large proportion which contingent expenses bore to the sum paid to the Natives. Out of a total sum of 3£8,921 which (up to the end of the financial year at 31st March last) had been charged to Waimate, £1,357 appeared as contingent expenses, against only £1,567 received ,by the Native owners. Out of this latter sum Ave found that £900 had been received by TitokoAvaru; but he did not get it in that name. When the first A roucher Avas signed by him, it Avas returned from the Audit Avith the intimation that no payment of public money to him would be passed; so a note w<as attached by the Under-Secretary that " the voucher had better be signed in some other name," Avhich w ras done, and three different names were used Avhenever TitokoAvaru had to get money. But on going further into the several payments, and asking Avhether sums paid to various chiefs (to the amount altogether of more than £2,500) had all been paid to them as takoha for their chiefship mana, we Avere surprised to learn 1 that none of the money had reached the tribe at all; that £900 of it had been paid, not for anything on Waimate Plains, but " towards the' expenses of the Waitara meeting" in 1878: moreover, that another sum of £1,000, returned as having been paid to the chief Teira of Waitara and others, Avas not " a payment on account of any proprietorship in the Waimate Plains, but for food and other expenses incurred at the [same] Waitara meeting ; " and that Teira AA ras himself desirous of an "arrangement" by Avhich this money should be so applied. We naturally asked Major BroAvn " Why he had described this money as takoha at all if it Avas spent for the Waitara meeting?" To which this Avas the reply: " Mr. Sheehan considered it was one of those items of expenditure Avhich could bo properly charged against takoha, against the expenditure on this Coast, and in settlement of the question; he considered it Avould have a beneficial influence; and so it had for the time, till the Natives found out, after a feAV months, that it [the meeting] had ended in nothing." Hearing with amazement of such a proceeding, Ave asked Major Brown what it Avas, then, that he had got by the payment of all this money to the chiefs ? Was he any better than before he paid it ? His reply was, " No; and that is why I recommended that takoha should cease." "So that when you come to settle the question of the Plains your money will go for nothing ?"—" Yes, practically." We Avish Ave could have stopped here. But by the merest accident our inquiry had to be taken into a far different channel. On thinking over the circumstance that Teira, a Waitara chief of the Ngatiawa tribe, had received a fourth of all the money returned as takoha for Waimate Plains, we wondered hoAV it Avas that he had established rights, over land belonging to the Ngatiruanui tribe, entitling him to £1,000 to spend at pleasure on a Waitara meeting when men like Hone Pihama and Buakere had only got a couple of hundred. Then the truth came out, not only that the money had not been paid to him as takoha on account of any proprietary rights at Waimate, but that the money had neA rer reached his hands at all; and that another £1,000 of the money for which the other chiefs had signed, had never reached theirs either. Where the money had gone had been kept a secret. We called the proper officer of the Land Purchase department before us, and required the vouchers Avhich had passed the Audit to be produced to us : these vouchers, with detailed accounts of the true expenditure Avhich they were meant to hide, are now laid before Your Excellency. It is enough to give a sketch of them to see AA rhat, at a time when heavy taxation had to be imposed upon all classes of the settlers, could be done in secret squandering among the Natives at this Waitara meeting. To help that feast, there Avere not wanting luxuries in the shape of tinned fruits and jam, and fancy biscuits, with mullet and salmon and lobster, plenty of good ale and wines, and "three-star brandy." Nor did the Avomen lack of anything they longed for, in costumes,

18R6. Major Brown, Evidence, Q. 1042

Statement. Appendix 18, No. 8. Brown, Evidence, Q. 1051. Ibid., Q. 1063, 1064.

Major Brown, Evidence, Q. 1066, 1067. Ibid., Evidence, Q. 1058-60.

'Under-Secretary Land Purchase Department, Evidence, Q. 1350, 1352, 1354. Vouchers, Appendix D.