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A Compendium of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs in the South Island. Volume Two.

Thursday, May 7. — [Before Chief Judge Fenton, and Henare Pukuatua (an Arawa Chief), Native Assessor.] The Court opened at 10 o'clock

Thursday, May 7.
[Before Chief Judge Fenton, and Henare Pukuatua (an Arawa Chief), Native Assessor.] The Court opened at 10 o'clock.

The Order of Reference.

Mr.Williams said, that on considering this matter over, he had, subject, of course, to the permission of the Court, thought it advisable that there should be only one order embracing the whole of the cases. The claims were under one deed, and the whole of them were referred under one order; and he thought it would save both time and trouble, if one order was made to include the whole of the cases. The Court was a Court of Record, and the order would of course be made a matter of record. He had drawn up the form of the order to submit to the Court, as he understood that there was no Registrar to settle the form of order, as was the case in the Supreme Court.

Mr. Mackay stated that the Kaiapoi Natives declined to have anything to do with the matter; and he had prepared a list of the principal men of the place, whose names should be included in the Crown grant for the land. He did not think that any of the Kaiapoi Natives were in attendance.

Wiremu Naihera answered when called on.

The Chief Judge said that he was inclined to make out the grant in this chief's name, as he had attended on the previous day and on this occasion.

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Mr. Mackay said that if it were made out in Naihera's name only, it would lead to a great deal of disagreement among the natives.

The Chief Judge ordered that the land should be Crown granted to the chiefs in trust for the people of Kaiapoi.

Wiremu Naihera said the Kaiapoi people did not agree to take the 650 acres. He was agreeable.

The Chief Judge said that if they did not consent to take the land, they could leave it alone.

Wiremu Naihera said that they did not consent to take the land because they were so numerous, and the land was so small.

Crown grants were ordered to be issued to the chiefs of the other districts, in trust for their respective hapus the Court then adjourned 3 o' clock.

The Court affirmed the order on resuming; and some other business was transacted in respect to the arrangement between the Natives and the Government, according to the judgment delivered on the previous day.

At the rising of the Court, the Chief Judge stated that he could not but express his gratitude for the assistance he had derived from the Counsel who had conducted the various cases during the sitting of the Court. It was another proof to him of what he had constantly asserted—that Native matters were no mystery, that it only required an educated English gentleman, and not a Maori doctor to deal with such questions. He wished also to thank the Maoris for their quiet and orderly conduct in the Court. He could not pass over another fact which had been very gratifying to him, and that was, the intelligent manner in which the gentleman representing the Press had reported the proceedings. In no portion of the Islands had such clear and correct reports been given in the public papers, Finally, as the claims and rights which had been brought before the Court had been, and no doubt would be, the subject of discussion in the Legislative Assemblies of the Colony, he thought it only right to express his recognition of the justice, which bordered on liberality, with which the Crown had met the claims of the Natives.