No. 11.
The Under Secretary Native Department, to the Hon. H. J. Tancred.

Sir,—

I am directed by the Hon. Colonel Russell to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, in which you. consent to undertake the duties of Commissioner of Native reserves in the northern part of the Province of Canterbury, and to exercise on behalf of His Excellency the power of giving or withholding assent to the leasing, or other disposal of their lands by the Natives at Kaiapoi. I am now directed to inform you that His Excellency has been pleased to authorize you to act for him on his behalf, and an Order in Council delegating to you Commissioner's powers under "The Native Reserves Act, 1856," will be gazetted at an early date. With regard to the question raised by you as to what conditions, if any, should be imposed upon the alienation of the lands for which Crown grants are issued, I am directed to inform you that the Government desire to leave you unfettered in the use of your own discretion, to act according to circumstances in each case as it arises. They would only indicate generally their wish, that in any case of alienation, the interests of children of the grantee, or of others concerned, should as far as possible be guarded, and that the Natives should be discouraged from parting with their property, except for the purpose of making a better investment with the proceeds. A number of the Natives have other property elsewhere, and in their cases, where no other interests are materially involved, it would seem desirable that no impediment should be thrown in the way of their disposing of their lands, as any steps which tend to introduce a European population into the settlement, and do away with the isolation which at present appears to prevent the social improvement of the Natives must be considered to be beneficial. If this isolation can be broken through, and habits of industry promoted, in some cases by allowing them to reduce themselves temporarily to a state which will necessitate their working for their subsistence, in other cases by inducing them to invest profitably in property among Europeans, and live among them, much good will be effected. The circumstances of this small body of Natives, surrounded by a population of widely different pursuits and feelings, seems to foster their communistic habits even in a greater degree than is the case in the Northern Island, the principal object therefore in view, is to educate them to a change of ideas in respect of property in land, and at the same time to do away with the communism which pervades their other relations in life, and which forms the chief barrier between the two races.

In reply to the latter part of your letter, in which you request to be furnished with correspondence and other documents calculated to throw light on past transactions. I have the honour to inform you that copies of all such letters and documents shall be forwarded to you at an early date. In the meantime I may call your attention to Mr. Buller's report contained in the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, for 1862, which almost exhausts the subject of the Kaiapoi reserves to the 1st March, 1862.