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To His Excellency the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand. May it please Your Excellency,— I, the undersigned Commissioner, appointed by Warrant dated the 25th January, 1950, have the honour to submit to Your Excellency my report under the following terms of reference : (a) To inquire and report whether it is established that, but for the provisions of the said section 14 of the Coal-mines Act Amendment Act, 1903, any Maori or group or class of Maoris would have been the owner or owners, according to Maori custom and usage, of the aforesaid portion of the bed of the Wanganui River : (b) To inquire and report whether it is established that any Maori or any group or class of Maoris has, by reason of the enactment of the said section 14, suffered such loss or deprivation in respect of the aforesaid portion of the bed of the Wanganui River as would, in equity and good conscience, entitle him or them to compensation : (c) If it be reported that there has been such loss or deprivation as aforesaid, then to recommend what compensation in money or money's worth should now be granted to the Maori claimants : (d) If it be recommended that any such compensation should be granted, then to report for whose benefit, that is to say, that of any particular Maori, hapu, tribe, or other group or class of Maoris, and in what manner, the amount of such compensation should be appropriated and applied : (e) If it be recommended that any compensation should be so granted, then to report whether any terms or conditions, whether as to the abandonment or surrender of any rights or otherwise, should attach to the grant of such compensation. Harold Johnston, Commissioner. Wellington, 18th July, 1950.

The Royal Warrant setting up this Commission, after reciting that the Maori Land Court, upon proceedings taken in it, made a provisional or preliminary determination that the portion of the bed of the Wanganui River between the tidal limit at Raorikia and the confluence of the Wanganui and Whakapapa Rivers, was, at the time of the making of the Treaty of Waitangi, held by Maoris under their customs and usages, and that upon appeal that determination was upheld by the Maori Appellate Court, and that on later proceedings taken in the Supreme Court it was, in effect, declared by virtue of section 14 of the Coal-mines Act Amendment Act, 1903, the bed of the Wanganui River, so far as the same is navigable, is and is deemed to have always been vested in the Crown, directs this Commission, in the first place, to report whether it is established that, but for the provisions of the said section of the Coal-mines Act, any Maoris would have been the owner or owners according to Maori custom and usage, of the aforesaid portion of the bed of the Wanganui River. To grasp the scope and nature of this inquiry, the recitals need examination. The Native Land Court provisional or preliminary determination (upheld by the Native Appellate Court) referred to was at the request of counsel for the Maoris and the Crown, preliminary to an application filed in the Maori Land Court for investigation of the title to the bed of the Wanganui River. On this preliminary point the decision was that at the time of the Treaty of Waitangi the bed of the Wanganui River from the tidal limit at Raorikia to its junction with the Whakapapa River, which it seems to have been conceded at the time of the passing of the Coal-mines Amendment Act of 1903, was navigable, was land held by the Natives under their customs and usages.

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