27

G.—4c

come to New Plymouth and see me as soon as lie could. [Exhibit No. 7]. On or about the 16th September I wired both to Eewi and Mr. Tolo from Wellington that the survey must be deferred until Mr. Bryce had gone to the Waikato. The reason I did this was that I had in the meantime been sent for by the Native Minister, Mr. Bryce, who told me that until the Natives would allow a triangulatioii-survey to be proceeded with by the Government (which they were resisting) no other survey in that district could be gone on with, and that he was going to the Waikato shortly and would see about it himself. Nothing further was done to my knowledge until April, 1884, when I received instructions from the Surveyor-General [Exhibit No. 8, produced] that it was necessary, for the purpose of defining the boundary of the King Country Block, then about to be brought before the Court, that the eastern portion of the Mokau-Mohakatino Block should be ascertained, and that I should proceed to get it surveyed by a staff-surveyor. Notice was thereupon sent by me to the principal Natives interested in the Mokau-Mohakatino Block. It was explained to them that the object of the survey was simply to exclude the Mokau-Mohakatino Block from the King Country Block. That was the reason the Government had for undertaking the survey at that time. Consequent on this I received a letter from Mr. Jones [Exhibit No. 9, produced], objecting to the Government interfering with the survey. I forwarded Mr. Jones's letter to the Surveyor-General, and also informed him that a number of Natives had waited on me at my office and urged their objections in person. Wetere te Eerenga and Te Horo were two of the Natives who waited on me on that occasion. I suggested in my memorandum to the Surveyor-General that Wahanui's influence might be obtained to overcome opposition. In June, the following month, I received a memorandum from the Surveyor-General [Exhibit No. 10, produced] to the effect that the Native Minister was of opinion that nothing could be done at present to remove the opposition. I had made all arrangements for a survey, and a surveyor was in town waiting to proceed with it, but in consequence of the Surveyor-General's memorandum the arrangements fell through. The next thing that happened was my receipt of a telegram from the Surveyor-General, dated the 10th of October, 1884, stating that Mr. Eawson had applied on behalf of Wetere and others to be allowed to survey this and the Mohakatino-Parininihi No. 1 Block, and asking my opinion. I replied that, in the Mokau-Mohakatino, the back country having been so insufficiently defined by the Court, and the Natives objecting so strongly to it, that the block should not be touched until the Chief Judge had come to some decision as to the definition of the boundary, and after the case had been submitted to him for that purpose. Eerenga's application for Mr. Eawson to be allowed to survey did not include Mokau-Mohakatino No. ]. I heard nothing further about Mr. Eawson's application. In September, 1885, I was informed by Mr. Percy Smith, the Assistant Surveyor-General, that arrangements had been come to by himself and the Chief Judge, and approved by the Native Minister, with regard to the definition of the said boundary, commencing at Totoro, and desiring me to inform the Natives accordingly, which I did. Wetere either wrote or sent to me to say that he would go with Mr. Skeet to assist him in carrying out the arrangements (which, however, he did not do), so as to prevent opposition by other Natives. On the 15th November I received instructions from the Native Minister to proceed with the survey, and I then sent Mr. Skeet up to Mokau to commence the work. Mr. Skeet went up, but Wetere did not accompany him, as he had promised to do, and on the 14th of December I received a letter from him [Exhibit No. 11] to the effect that the Natives were opposed to his commencing at the mineral-spring near Totoro; in consequence of this opposition he then returned to New Plymouth, and on the 21st of December Mr. Skeet made a formal report to me [Exhibit No. 12], a copy of which I forwarded to the Surveyor-General, together with my own observations thereon. On the 28th of December I received a letter from Mr. Jones [Exhibit No. 13, now produced], complaining of Mr. Skeet's proceedings. I have also seen communications from Mr. Jones to the Surveyor-General to the same effect. The Surveyor-General also informed me by telegram that a communication had been received from Epiha complaining of Mr. Skeet being sent to survey the land. I thereupon forwarded to the Surveyor-General a report [Exhibit No. 14, now produced]. About a week after this I went up to the Mokau-Mohakatino myself to inquire into the matter, and on my return forwarded to the Surveyor-General my two reports [Exhibits Nos. 15 and 16, produced], which reports, in my opinion, contain a full refutation of the charges against Mr. Skeet, and contain a true account of my interview with the Natives on that occasion. The principal object of my visit was to try and settle the boundary question, and to make another attempt to cut a line from Totoro. The whole matter was discussed at a meeting of Natives at Mokau Heads, at which I was present, and the Natives refused to allow any line further inland than Kokalmrangi. I then went to see the up-river Natives at Totoro, who expressed the same determination, and again at the village of Euangarahu. From thence, according to my instructions, I went to interview Wahanui at Mirohuiao, some fifteen miles from Totoro; he also was firm in his determination that the boundary should not be further inland than Kokahurangi. Mr. Dalziel was thereupon set to work to cut a line accordingly, which he completed about the end of February. A map compiled from his survey was then prepared for the Land Court; the area included in Mr. Dalziel's survey would be about thirty-four thousand acres. The plan prepared on Mr. Dalziel's survey was the one produced before the Court at Otorohanga in August, 1886, when objections were taken to the boundary ; and after a discussion, in which Wahanui, Te Eerenga, and other Natives took part, an agreement was come to by which the boundary was placed fully three miles down the river, at a point called Mangaruahine, and from thence to Waipapa, and thence to Matapeka, which would reduce the area to about twenty-three thousand acres. The next that I heard of it was when the Court was about to be held at Waitara in October, 1887. A few weeks before the sitting of the Court I received instructions from the Surveyor-General to compile a map for the Court from our topographical maps, and to fix the eastern boundary by a line running due south from the spring at Motukaremu, which is above a mile eastward of the mineral spring at Totoro. The map was prepared accordingly, and is the map which was put before the s—a. 4c.