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Page 36.

Tipene's statement is untrue. Patukakariki never made any objection when Teira's land was offered. He did object when Piripi offered to sell some land.

It is to be regretted that Sir W. Martin should insert a statement so untrue, when indisputable evidence was before him in the statements of the Native Minister and Chief Commissioner, who were present at the meeting. Mr. McLean in his evidence at the bar of the House of Representasives, said that Patukakariki had never protested against the sale of Teira's block, though he had protested against the sale of other land.

In a letter addressed to the Governor by Mr. McLean on the 1st December 1860, the following statement occurs:—"I was present at Taranaki in March 1859, when the land was offered for sale. Te Patukakariki never made the slightest objection to the sale of this land, although he did object to the cession of some claims inland of this block, which were offered by a Native named Piripi."

As little reliance can be placed on Tipene Ngaruna's statements about Tamati Raru, Teira's father, who instead of being opposed to the sale, with his own hands helped to cut the boundary line, and whose name is the first to the Deed of Sale.

These falsehoods dispose of the rest of the letter, and make it unnecessary to say more: but as Sir W. Martin has put in italics the concluding part which refers to a proposal made by Te Teira to exchange certain lands, it is perhaps as well to observe that the proposal, whatever it really was, was made long before the offer of his land by Teira, and had nothing whatever to do with any transaction in which the Government had been mixed up.