Gt.— 2.

awards. In the Bay of Plenty the total confiscation was 440,000 acres, and of this 96,261 acres were given as compensation to loyal Natives, 104,952 allocated to returned rebels, 87,000 given to the Arawa tribe, and about 40,000 abandoned. The report from which Ave are quoting gives the gross area of the confiscated land at 2,828,000 acres, and of this amount 793,738 acres were returned to the Natives. The two blocks given back to Matakatea and the Ngamahanga tribe covered 62,000 acres. At Waitara two most valuable blocks, containing together about 28,000 acres, had been returned to a feAV hapus. In proposing, therefore, to reserve 25,000 acres out of 146,000 (which is the total area enclosed by the Waingongoro and Oeo Rivers, and out of which Ave estimated in our Eirst Eeport that 120,000 Avere available), Sir George Grey's Government were not making an excessive reservation for the Natives of the Phiins. And Ave lay before Your Excellency a small plan, which, by shoAving the number and position of the Native villages along the forest line for a distance of more than twenty miles beyond Waingongoro river, makes it evident that not much less land could be given if the promises of successive Governments were to be redeemed. The only difference between what Mr. Sheehan proposed and we recommended, is that his offer Avas to give up the back country as well, from Waingongoro to Wahamoko and up to the mountain, whereas our inland lines limit the reserve to 25,000 acres, leaving a large and fertile country at the back for settlement. (4.) The Tirotiromoana (Mountain Road) Reserve. There Avas another reason, why Sir George Grey's Government could hardly have proposed less than the 25,000 acres they intended on Waimate Plains. Close by, on the south side of the Waingongoro Biver, Major Brown had extended the reserves made in 1873 by Sir Donald McLean from 3,500 acres to 10,000 acres, Avith the express object that " the Natives on the Waimate Plains should not infer that he would deal with them [afterwards] in a niggardly manner." Sir Donald McLean had originally made reserves there of 1,000 acres for the chief Pepe Heke, 1,000 acres for the chief Toi Whakataka, and 1,000 acres for the Ngatitupaea. Mr. Blake reported on the 10,000-acre extension first to the Native Minister in December 1878, and afterwards through Mr. Mackay in September 1879. When the reserve came to be surveyed, the boundaries marked (under the guidance of the Natives) were found to enclose 16,000 acres, and these 16,000 were claimed before us. Major Brown insisted that the area should be brought back to 10,000 acres. We asked him : " Taking the area of this new reserve at your OAvn limit of 10,000 acres instead of the 16,000 claimed at Hawera, and adding it to the 10,500 acres of Taiporohenui and 6,000 acres of Mokoia and Otoia [south of Waingongoro], they would altogether make a total of not far from 30,000 acres in one block, Avould they not ? —I do not think the total would exceed 27,000 acres." " The Natives Avill haA'e the advantage of a triple frontage upon Government roads : that is to say, frontage on both sides the Mountain Eoad noAV made, and frontage to the new Mountain Road as it is to be; and Avill also have the railway running close to their land besides: is that not so ?—Yes." This 10,000-acre reserve was to cover many indefinite promises alleged to have been made, so that " as soon as the question of the boundary of it was finally settled, there should be no more questions of reserves south of Waingongoro." It is no doubt a pity that so large an extent of land should have been locked up at this particular spot, because on account of the great expenditure on the Mountain Road running through it, and upon the railway running by its side, it Avas eminently attractive and valuable for purposes of settlement. But having sanctioned the making of such a reserve immediately to the south of Waingongoro River, Mr. Sheehan could not have hoped for an arrangement on the Waimate Plains Avith anything less than the 25,000 acres he proposed there. Last of all, it must be remembered that the law has long laid down the principle that " no land reserved for the support and maintenance of the Natives, and also for endowments for their benefit, shall be considered sufficient for such purpose, unless the reserves so made for these objects shall together be equal to an aggregate amount of not less than 50 acres for every Native man, woman, and child resident in the district."

Major Brown, Evidence, Q. 660.

Major Brown, Evid. Q. 1144. Sir D. McLean, Instructions, 8 February 1873, Appendix E, No. 3. Capt. Blake, Appendix E, Ko. 3.

Major Brown, Evid. Q. 1134.

Ibid. Evid. Q. 1158

Ibid. Evid. Q. 1139.

Native Land Act 1873, Sec. 24.

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