Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
H. Merivale, Esq., to H. F. Alston, Esq.

Sir—

I am directed by the Committee of Management of the Canterbury Association to transmit to you copies of letters received by them relative to Native Claims upon parts of the territory in the Middle Island, appropriated to them.

They beg me respectively to suggest that such directions may be given to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, or the other proper authorities, as may tend effectually to extinguish all their claims, whether of a real or imaginary kind, as the mere suspicion of such claims, as still existing, would, they fear, be prejudicial to their Colony. They have proceeded hitherto in full confidence of their complete extinction over land set apart for them.