G.—3.

18

APPENDIX lII.—MEMORANDUM OF PROCEEDINGS AT WAITOTARA IN CONNECTION WITH TAPA TE WAERO'S CLAIMS AND THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION BY HIM AND OTHER NATIVES OE SECTIONS BELONGING TO MR. CHURTON.

Hon. Sir W. Fox, West Coast Commissioner, to the Hon. the Native Minister. Sib,— West Coast Commission Office, 29th March, 1883. I have the honour to refer you to my reports on Mr. Henry Churton's case, 14th June, 1881, and Tapa te Waero's case, 10th May, 1882, which are printed in Appendix to Journals, 1882, G.—s, pp. 25 and 19. I have now to state that, in the hope of being able, by a personal interview with all the parties concerned, to effect an amicable adjustment of these complicated cases on the lines suggested in those reports, I held a sitting at Waitotara on the 19th and 20th inst., to which I had summoned Mr. Churton and Tapa te Waero and other Natives interested in the matter, and I was assisted by Major Booth, E.M., who had had much previous acquaintance with these cases and with the Natives of the district, and Mr. Sicely, of the Government Survey Department, who had surveyed a great part of the Moumohaki Block and Okutuku District, in which the disputes had arisen. Most of the principal chiefs of the Ngarauru and Pakakohe tribes were present, including Aperahama, of Ihupuku, Taurua, Komene, and Ngapaki of Patea, Uru te Angina, of Waitotara, and about one hundred other members of the tribes. I told them that, before I would do anything towards adjusting "Tapa te Waero and his people's " claims, they must abandon their illegal occupation of the sections which belonged to Mr. Churton, and when that was done I would be prepared, to recommend land for them in lieu of the 330 acres awarded to them by Sir Donald McLean, which they could not occupy because they had unwisely leased it to a European, thereby leaving themselves without any land which they could call their own. That, in consideration of the trouble and any possible loss caused by their removal from Mr. Churton's sections, I would recommend that they should have 100 acres in excess of the quantity to which they were limited by Sir Donald. This, I intimated, was the final decision at which I had arrived after thoroughly investigating the cases of "Tapa and his people" and the claims of Mr. Churton to the sections which they were occupying without any lawful right. Tapa, who was the principal mouthpiece of the party, attempted to meet the position I had taken up by evasions and subterfuges, which were easily answered and exposed by the production, of documentary evidence lying on the table ; but little of what he said is worth repeating. One point, however, requires notice. Finding it impossible to deny that the arrangements made by Sir Donald McLean were intended to be final for "himself and his people," and that in his negotiations with Major Brown he had promised to remove " his people " from Mr. Churton's land, he now very cunningly declared that he had nothing to do with the people in occupation of the sections, except so far as his wife was concerned, and that she had a right in this land; but, as regards her and himself, he was willing to remove if I would give him the land I had spoken of giving elsewhere. Now, it is quite certain that, when he was attempting to get land from Sir Donald McLean and Major Brown, the people he paraded as his people, and for whom he demanded land in his petition to Parliament, because, as he untruly affirmed, they had none, were the very people who are now trespassing on Mr. Churton's land. It suited him then to make it appear that he had a following unprovided for; now he tried to persuade me that these people were not " his people," but he failed to say who were his people if they were not. Major Brown's letter is quite conclusive as to who were intended to be " the people " who had to be removed from Mr. Churton's land. The attempt to ride off by this device, and leave "his people" in possession, was clever enough, but altogether dishonest. The ultimate resort of Tapa, Spain, and Kuritangi (the apparent ringleaders of the party, and ■ the three who had before been dealt with by the Supreme Court in the course of the proceedings mentioned in my previous report) was a denial of the Queen's right to confiscate the land, and a determination to set the Government and the Supreme Court at defiance. Outside of the room in which the discussion took place, Major Booth and Mr. Churton had much conversation with the Natives, but were not able to make any impression upon them. It did not appear that any of the other chiefs mentioned, or other members of the tribes, sympathized with the trespassers, but, on the contrary, several of them expressed their opinion that they were wrong in pursuing the course they did. I should also state that, accompanied by Major Booth and Mr. Sicely, I visited both Mr. Churton's sections and the land to which I proposed to remove Tapa and his people, and I consider the latter quite equivalent in value to the former. We counted the tenements in the pa occupied by them on Mr. Churton's land. There appeared to be ten very ordinary whares and the same number of wharepunis and storehouses, representing a probable population of thirty souls. The total amount of cultivation which could be seen appeared to be less than 20 acres, though on one of the sections there was a considerable quantity of grass, with a sprinkling of sheep and cattle upon it. There seemed very little other improvement. I understand that, if Mr. Churton were in possession of the Crown grants to which I have already reported him to be entitled, he would invoke the aid of the civil tribunals to eject the trespassers and put him in possession. I cannot see any reason why he should not be placed in a position to do so; and I therefore beg respectfully to repeat my recommendation, made two years ago, that the grants, already prepared, in favour of Eahira and Heroria should be issued and delivered to Mr. Churton, as soon as he shall have paid the purchase-money due on the former to the Public Trustee on account of Eahira's children, whom I have already declared to be her lawful successors. I have, &c, William Fox, The Hon. the Native Minister. West Coast Commissioner.