39

6.—7

part of Te_ Urewera, our claims to Tukurangi, Waiau, Taramarama, Ruakituri; it is not our intention to come into Court again. We have arranged our dispute with Ngatikahungunu." Toha Rahurahu (representing the Ngatikahungunu) then said, The evidence has been taken relative to these blocks referred to by Wi Hau Taruke. I apply for an order in favour of ' —and he thereupon nominated the owners for each of the four blocks, the total number of owners so nominated being fifty-three ; and the Court minute was as follows : " Memorial of ownership ordered for Waiau, Tukurangi, Taramarama, and Ruakituri as per lists above written. Court adjourned till, surveys are complete for subdivision later. Date to be fixed." As an indication as to the persons nominated as owners of the four blocks by the Ngatikahungunu, reference should be made to the following statement made by Toha Rahurahu (Ngatikahungunu) at the meeting of Maoris on the 29th October : ' Without prolonging the discussion to an unnecessary length, I may say that I am quite willing to admit the claim of one or two of you (Ureweras) —that is, those who possess an independent right to the Putere Block. But 1 have no intention whatever of consenting to all of you as having an interest in the land in question (the four blocks). Makarini te Wharehuia has no claim to any of the four blocks." It should be noted that the Urewera tribesman, Makarini te Wharehuia, was accordingly excluded from all the titles, notwithstanding he had got into the title of the Tukurangi Block under the deed of arrangement. On the withdrawal of the Ureweras the granting of the titles to the four blocks was made without objection by any of the Natives, Toha Rahurahu's lists being accepted. On the 17th November, 1875, the Crown, by deeds of conveyance, purchased the four blocks, Waiau, Tukurangi, Taramarama, and Ruakituri, for the sum of £9,700 paid to the loyal. Maori owners, and £.1,250 paid to the Urewera rebels. In 1867, £300 had been paid to Te Warn and the Ngatikahungunu rebels for their interests in the same blocks. 2,500 acres were set aside out of the blocks as reserves for the Urewera rebels, and 8,400 acres for the Ngatikahungunu—one reserve, called Makahea, of 500 acres, being subsequently purchased by the Crown. By these deeds of conveyance the loyal Natives obviously conveyed to the Crown the title they had acquired under the memorial of ownership granted them, by the Native Land Court. On the 15th January, 1876, or two months after the deeds of conveyance had been executed, the following agreement was entered into :— Memorandum of agreement entered into this fifteenth day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-six (1876), between the chiefs of Ngati-Kahungunu, acting for and on behalf of their respective hapus, and Her Majesty the Queen. 1. That in consideration of the sum of fifteen hundred pounds sterling, paid by Her Majesty the Queen by the hands of J. P. Hamlin, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, they the chiefs of Ngati-Kahungunu, acting for and on behalf of their respective hapus, their heirs or assigns, do hereby covenant and agree to convey absolutely all their right, title, and interest in the Waiau, Tukurangi, Taramarama, and Ruakituri Blocks, containing one hundred and fifty-seven thousand acres, more or less (157,000 acres), as the same is more particularly described by a deed bearing date the seventeenth day of November, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. 2. The chiefs further agree for themselves, their heirs and assigns, to release Her Majesty the Queen from any further claims for services rendered during the rebellion from the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five to the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six." The foregoing agreement was signed by Ihaka Whanga and 440 other Natives, none of whose names appear in the memorials of title for the four blocks. It is evident, then, that the chiefs of the Ngatikahungunu signing the agreement were not conveying any title obtained by them from the Native Land Court, because they had none to convey. One must look elsewhere for an explanation of the right, title, and interest in the four blocks purported to be conveyed by the chiefs to the Crown. That explanation has been supplied by Mr. Hamlin and the Hon. .1. D. Ormond in correspondence passing between them and Sir Donald McLean relative to and immediately prior to the signing of the above agreement. Mr. Hamlin, the Government Land Purchase Officer, writing to the Hon. J. D. Ormond on the 4th December, 1875, reported the completion of the sale of the four blocks on the 17th November, and added, " A further sum of £1,500 is to be paid to the loyal Natives of Wairoa, Mohaka, Nuhaka, and Mahia districts, as compensation for their claims on. these lands acquired (i.e., the four blocks), in accordance with agreement at Hatepe, 1867." The Hon. J. D. Ormond, forwarding Mr. Hamlin's communication