G.—2.

Reserves of nearly 263,000 acres Avill appeal' to Your Excellency very large. But a true idea of what this means would hardly be present to the mind Avithout looking at the value of the estate that would have been returned to tho Natives if all the promises had been fulfilled. We requested the Civil Commissioner, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, the Chief Surveyor, and the Land Officer at Patea to make in consultation a careful estimate of the value of each reserve: this has been done, and (so far as our oavu knowledge enables us to judge) Ave adopt and confirm their calculations. We now present the result to Your Excellency. Estimated Value of the Eeserves. £ £ 1. Schedule lof Detailed Statement, Appendix B No. 8 ... ... ... 11,452 2 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 20,800 3 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 67,100 4 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 84,600 5 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 35,340 6 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 32,010 7 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 6,253 8 ditto ... ... ... ... ... ... 3,500 261,055 2. Compensation awards allocated:— Ngatirahiri Block ... ... ... ... ... ... 30,000 Onaero Beach Block ... ... ... ... ... ... 12,000 Otaraoa Block ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1,500 Patua Eange ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,200 45,700 3. Compensation and Government awards not yet allocated, 50,000 acres (subject to questions of merger) ... ... ... ... ... ... 40,000 4. Blocks returned to tribes —■ Stoney Biver Block (Ngamahanga) ... ... ... ... 35,500 Opunake Block (Matakatea) ... ... ... ... ... 70,000 105,500 5. Eeserves in blocks acquired by cession or takoha ... ... ... ... 3,780 0. Eeserves to be allocated under promises— Hone Pihama's Eeserve at Oeo ... ... ... ... ... 9,000 For his tribe, between Oeo and Ouri ... ... ... ... 9,000 Manaia's Eeserve on the Plain ... ... ... ... ... 12,000 30,000 7. Waimate Plains— Seaward cultivations on the Plains, and Continuous Eeserve ... ... 115,000 £601,035 To be added if tho provision we recommend is made for the Parihaka people ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 37,500 Estimated total value of Eeserves ... ... ... £638,535 Considering that the Natives for whom this large extent of valuable land Avas to have been set aside never numbered more than 3,000, and are now said by the Civil Commissioner to be less, it certainly cannot be said that if the promises of the Crown since 1865 bad been fulfilled, the most ample provision Avould not have been made for the tribes; nor that such provision Avill be insufficient iioav, if Parliament enables the promises to be at last redeemed. What the Native Minister said in his place last year is quite true, that these reserves AA rould, in fact, have made the Taranaki tribes the most wealthy in the country. (3.) The Waimate Plains Reserve. In our First Eeport Ave said that Ave should in due time lay before Your Excellency our reasons for thinking that the 25,000 acres proposed by Sir George Grey's Government for the Natives on Waimate Plains was the right one. The area of territory confiscated on the south of the Waingongoro was estimated in 1873 (in a report by the Under-Secretary) to be about 295,000 acres: and out of this about 44,000 acres have been reserved, one block being a continuous reserve of about 27,000 acres. The total area confiscated in the Waikato country was estimated in the same report at 1,193,000 acres: of Avhich 181,516 acres were returned to loyal Natives and 119,705 acres reserved for others, making a total reservation of about 301,000 acres. In Tauranga the area confiscated was estimated at only 50,000 acres, of Avhich 8,000 were comprised in reserves and

Census of 1878, Appendix B, No. 9. Major Brown, Report 1830.

Hon.Mr.Sheehsu Speech 23 July 1879, Hansard xxxi. 184.

St. John, Report, PP 1873, C 18, p. 3. Schedule of Reserves, App. B.

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