LVII

G.—2.

2,000 acres which was promised to be given back to the Otaraoa people. Coming down to the other blocks acquired by cession east of the Mountain Road and railAvay, there may be 15,000 acres worth £1 an acre outside a boundary distant three miles from the main line: what is left inside that boundary is, of course, worth more. On the whole, there is very little really good land left to us in the AAdiole division of the confiscated territory situated north of a line beginning at the Okato Township near the sea and ascending the Stoney River to its source, and thence descending the Patea River to the Town of Stratford. But although this is the case, there are the blocks acquired by deeds of cession, and more than 100,000 acres besides within the confiscated territory, about which very little is known except that the country is rough and covered with forest, and useless without roads. Whenever a final adjustment takes place, we recommend that ample provision shall be made within this last-mentioned territory for Wiremu Kingi te Rangitake and the remnant of his people Avho are living there. When Ave were at Waitara, his brother Enoka appeared before us and asked for a small reserve for himself and Wiremu Kingi's daughter Oriana, saying that if it were given them she would come and live Avith him upon it. But as soon as Oriana and her brother Eruera heard of it, they came in to see us, and indignantly repudiated their uncle's request; telling us (as is the universal saying among them all) that Te Whiti would be sure to win the game, when everything would be put right and they would all get their land again without having to come to us for any. They would not eA ren take the smallest present without repeated assurances that the Government had nothing whatever to do with it. 2. The Parihaka Country, from Stoney River to Oeo. We propose to folloAV the subdivisions we gave in our Interim Report: first giving the areas from the sea to the summit of Mount Egmont, and then giving the area left to us to deal with. The blocks are these : — Acres. 1. Stoney Eiver Block ... ... ... ... ... 18,000 2. Parihaka Block (not 58,000, but) ... ... ... 56,000 3. Opunake Block ... ... ... ... ... 44,000 4. Oeo Block ... ... ... ... ... 26,000 Total ... ... ... ... ... 144,000 From which have to be taken the high shoulders of the mountain down to the six-mile radius shown on the plan ... ... ... 20,000 Leaving available about ... ... ... 124,000 The Stoney River Block and Opunake Blocks having been restored to the Natives, there is nothing left to us there. Taking first the Parihaka Block of 56,000 acres, Ave have to deduct 7,000 for the mountain ranges; and then we have also to deduct the reserve Ave recommended for Te Whiti and his people. We shall then have 24,000 acres left. Of this quantity about 9,000 acres are forest land behind what would be the Parihaka Reserve, and will probably not come into use for many years. The remainder, 15,000 acres, is the land situate between the sea and the new road now making by the Armed Constabulary, the greater part of which, if Your Excellency should still be pleased to confirm our recommendations of March, will be at once available for settlement in the Parihaka Block. There are, however, some points Avhich Ave haA'e to bring before Your Excellency. When we made our Interim Report, we could only conjecture where the new road Avould be taken, and we did not then think there would be more than 10,000 acres of open country seaAvard of it. The line of forest had, however, been shown too near the sea in the old maps, and the road has been taken a straighter line than avc thought likely. The result has been to cut through some Native cultivations: and as the area left for settlement thereby turns out to be 15,000 acres instead of 10,000, avc recommend that these Native cultivations (under the