I.—4A.

6

and Mr. Charles G. Andrews, Assistant-Inspector, Bank of New Zealand, will disprove the allegation regarding it. (7.) The terms of the annexed form of the agreement in question will also disprove this allegation. (8.) There is only one person —the Receiver of Gold Revenue at Westport (who is appointed in the leases) —employed in the collection of the rents of the reserve and the necessary relative matters connected with it, and his pay for same is £50 a year. Since he was appointed the receipts have amounted to £3,030, and his salary to £200. The proiiortion of my pay of £100 a year as agent for the Crown, chargeable to the reserve, would be very trifling, as the work forms but a very small part of the duties of my office, which embraces the Curatorship under " The Westland and Nelson Coal Fields Administration Act, 1877," of all the West Coast coal fields, the aggregate acreage of which is 130,000 acres, besides having also a similar charge of the Kawakawa coal field, in the Bay of Islands, as weli as other matters of a cognate character. As regards the prayer of the petition, enough has been said in the foregoing pages to show how suicidal it would be to repeal the provisions of the present Act (sections 7, 13, subsection 4, 17, and 18 of "The Westland and Nelson Coal Fields Administration Act, 1877,") in regard to the Westland Colliery Reserve, and give power to alienate the land thereof absolutely from the Crown. It is misleading, of the petitioners, to imply that there is any analogy between the circumstances of this reserve and the lands of other townships on the gold fields. They were not valuable reserves set apart for an important colonial purpose, and vested in the Crown as security for the expenditure on that purpose, and, consequently, there could be no good reason against selling the freeholds on them ; but the contingency may soon arise when more of the Colliery Reserve may be required for the purposes to which it was originally dedicated, and I need not say that the compensation which would have to be paid for any freehold which might be taken would be much higher than if the matter rests as it is. In addition to the document marked "A," referred to in subclause 6 of clause 15, I annex for reference the following documents: —B. Blank form of agreement to take a lease on the Colliery Reserve. C. Gazette No. 14, of 1876, containing the report of the Westport Colliery Reserve Commission. D. "The Immigration and Public Works Act, 1875" (See clauses 23 to 28). E. " The Westland and Nelson Coal Fields Administration Act, 1877 " (See clauses 7, 13, subsection 4,17 and 18).

A. Mr. Mackay to the Inspecting Offices, Bank of New Zealand, Wellington. Deae Sie, — Government Buildings, Wellington, Ist August, 1881. A petition has been presented to the House of Representatives by a number of the lessees in the Colliery Reserve at Westport, in one of the clauses (15) of which it is stated that " the administration of the reserve by the Commissioner has been aroitrary and capricious ;" and one of the instances given of this is that " he took Section 55 [It should be 52 : 55 belongs to Mr. Dragaeavich, Wakefield Street,] from John Munro without any compensation." Now, you are aware that the section in question was owned by Mr. W 0. Roberts, late manager of Bank of New Zealand, Dunediu, Munro being only his agent, and that Mr. Roberts, in the year 1877, while you were manager of the bank at Westport, commissioned you to arrange with me as to the compensation he should receive from the Government for it, and that I wrote you a letter offering £50 as such, which I believe you recommended Mr. Roberts to take, but which he has not yet done. Will you kindly state briefly on the back of this letter your recollection of the matter, that I may adduce it in support of my version of it. I have, &c, C. G. Andrews, Esq., Thomas Mackay Inspecting Officer, Bank of New Zealand, Wellington.

Minute by Mr. Andbews in reply I cannot just now lay my hands on the correspondence between myself and Mr. Roberts on the subject of the Colliery Reserve sections. To the best of my knowledge and recollection you offered £50 compensation for Section No. 55, it having been taken by the Railway Department. I believe I recommended Mr. Roberts to accept your offer, but he declined, stating it had cost him a much larger sum. lam of opinion Mr. Munro had an interest with Mr. Roberts in this section, but this Ido not know for a fact. C. G. Andbews. P.S.—I am of opinion that the compensation paid by you on behalf of the Government, for sections on the Colliery Reserve required by the Railway Department, was, in the cases that came under my notice, fair and reasonable. —J G. A.

B. Notice of Terms on which Leases will be Granted. Notice is hereby given to all persons entitled to leases in terms of the " Report of the Royal Commission on the Westport Colliery Reserve," as published in the New Zealand Gazette No. 14, of the 14th March, 1876, that the Government will grant them leases on the following terms : —■ 1. That, on payment of arrears of rent due, at the rate of £1 per annum for the years 1873 and 1874, and £2 10s. per annum for the two and a half years ending 30th June, 1877, leases will be granted for twenty-one years from the Ist July, 1877 2. That for the first seven years the rents shall be as per following schedule : —(1.) For sections fronting Palmerston Street, including corner sections of cross streets, from south side of Wallabi Street to Section 34, south side of Wakefield Street, both inclusive, and the frontages on Wakefield Street, at the rate of £5 per section per annum. (2.) For sections fronting Palmerston Street, including corner sections of cross streets, from Section 33 to Bentham Street, both inclusive ; the sections in Henley, Pakington, Nelson, Cobden, Lyttelton, and Bright Streets, at the rate of £2 10s. per section per annum. (3.) The remainder at the rate of £1 per section per annum.