G.—s.

Affairs Committee, and to the Civil Commissioner, Major Brown, by whom the recommendation for the grants was in the first instance made. I also respectfully recommend that, if necessary, the Legislature he asked to repeal the Act; though, as it is only permissive, this perhaps will not be requisite. It cannot, under any circumstances, be acted upon without amendment, as it contains two errors : one in the numeration of the sections ; and the other in the designation of the district in which they are. But though I am satisfied that this recommendation is consistent with the justice of the case, there is a practical difficulty which will require further action than the mere negation of Tapa's claim. By their own act, in letting and selling the various reserves made for them, and the land allocated to them under Sir Donald McLean's promise and by the Compensation Court, they appear to have actually left themselves without any definite piece of land which " Tapa and his people" at present can use as their own. There are other reserves and sections partly occupied by other sections of the tribe, but these may probably be jealous of any intrusion upon lands they cultivate or use. There is, however, a piece of some 1500 acres on the northern bank of the Waitotara Eiver which is just outside the southern boundary of the confiscated land, and would legitimately have been included in the Moumahaki Block by Major Brown when he extinguished the native title in it. (See Note E.) But for reasons given in his evidence before the Commission of 1880 (G.-2, 1880: Q. 1105-1107), he left it as a reserve for the tribe, without, however, apparently making any specific allocation of it to any particular section of the tribe. It is little more than a mile from the land at present illegally occupied by " Tapa and his people," and from which it seems that the Government will be obliged to remove them, or leave it to Mr. Churton, the owner of the land to do, when his grants, which I have already recommended, shall have been issued. They would have as much right to be on the land indicated as any other members of the tribe, and they might be located on so much of it as would be equivalent to the section allocated to them by Sir Donald McLean, on the understanding that they resume the latter when the lease granted by them now current shall have expired. In order to make the history of this case more intelligible than it may appear in the above short summary of its essential features, I have added a few notes containing facts illustrative of the points on which I have above rested my recommendation. Eeference is made in the margin at the places to which they have application. William Pox, New Plymouth, 10th May, 1882. . West Coast Commissioner.

Notes referred to in foregoing Beport. A.— Short Account of the Ngarauru, Tribe and their Lands. Before the "West Coast War of 1865, the Ngarauru sub-Tribe occupied the country between the Whenuakura Eiver on the north, and the Kai Iwi on the south, a distance of between twenty and thirty miles: hounded by the sea-coast on the west, and thence inland indefinitely. They were intermixed by marriage more or less with their neighbours, the Pakakohi on the north, and the Whanganuis on the south. The first interference with their territory was the purchase in 1864 by the Government of a block of 20,000 acres immediately south of the Waitotara Eiver. Of this upwards of 6,000 acres of the best of the land was reserved for the tribe in several separate blocks. These and the remainder of their lands south of the Waitotara were exempted from the confiscation of 1865 ; while, at that time, some further reserves of about 2,000 acres were made for them out of the confiscated land north of the river. But in addition to this, not less than about 17,000 acres were awarded to the loyal members of the tribe, individually or in families, by the Compensation Court. Notwithstanding the participation of the tribe (probably the whole of it), in the war of 1868-9, none of these lands were taken from them; and it certainly was very ample provision for a tribe which, by the late census (1881), numbers only 358 persons of all ages. This, however, is subject to the following remark; that almost immediately after the receipt of the compensation land (17,000 acres), they sold nearly the whole of it, and leased the remainder, to Europeans at prices which, though generally fair at the time, are much below the present value of the land. They also leased a large part of the reserves, leaving to themselves, however, a sufficiency for their actual wants according to the habits of Maori life ; and no complaint has been heard, except from Tapa te Waero, of any of them being left destitute or without local habitation. (See further on the lands owned by this tribe : Memo, by Major Booth, 1 May, 1882, Sub-Enclosure 4.) B.— How "Tapa and his People" were provided with land. Tapa's "people" appear to he very few in number—probably not over twenty-five in all. In 1873, Sir Donald McLean made some reserves for special portions of the Ngarauru tribe, amounting to about 2500 acres (Sub-Enclosure 2), of which 320 were expressly awarded to " Tapa and his people," which were immediately allocated by Captain Blake, the Government Agent, after full discussion with the natives interested, and apparently to their satisfaction. This was in addition to any tribal interest in the other reserves to which they might be entitled, and any land awarded to them by the Compensation Court. Tapa, immediately after receiving the land for "himself and people" (section 394, Okotuku), leased it to an European named James Hughes, who (or his assigns) occupies it to this day. When Tapa had thus put himself and his people out of occupation of their legitimate homes, they seem to have located themselves upon two compensation allotments of 400 acres each, belonging respectively to Eahera Tiwaia and Heroria Hinehara (sections 386 and 387, Okotuku); and when these sections were sold and leased by their proper owners to certain Europeans, Tapa and his peopla refused to quit them, and obstructed possession of them by the latter. Out of this resulted the "Kiddel" complication, the adjustment of which cost the Government several years' trouble and a large pecuniary loss: and connected with which still continues a further difficulty caused by the ■occupation of those natives, or some of them, adversely to the rights of Mr. Henry Churton, who is

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