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

No. 32. — [Memorandum.]

No. 32.
[Memorandum.]

Careful inquiries were made of the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Dunedin, before any of the land was selected preparatory to the awards of the Court being made. And the land at Tantuku was described amongst other places as being available for selection.

Considerable difficulty was found in obtaining suitable land for the Natives, owing to the absence of information as to the character of the land available for selection, and Tautuku being known to them from there having been an old settlement there, in the early days of the Colony; land was chosen there at their request.

The Tautuku district is not within the boundaries of the New Edinburgh Purchase, but forms a portion of the Murihiku block purchased by Mr. Mantell in 1853, previously included in the Province of Otago, as constructed by the proclamation issued on the promulgation of "The Constitution Act" in January, 1853. The land therefore became ordinary waste land of the Crown on the Native Title being extinguished, and did not come within the purview of the regulations made between the New Zealand Company and the Otago Association, alluded to by Mr. Macandrew in his letter of the 17th July, 1868, which are only applicable to land within the New Edinburgh block, even supposing these regulations still exist, which they do not, having been superseded by fresh regulations made in 1856, on the express recommendation of the Superintendent and Provincial Council. These regulations gave the Governor no power of making Native reserves, but they did not impede the fulfilment of any contract entered into by the Crown with the Native sellers.

A contract did exist between the Crown and the Natives under the Ngaitahu Deed of 1848; and "The Waste Lands Act, 1858," and "The Crown Grants Act, No. 2 1862," both empower the Governor to cause land to be set apart in fulfilment of contracts or engagements, more especially the latter, as far as Natives are concerned.

The claims were regularly referred to the Native Land Court, and "The Ngaitahu Validation Act of 1868," cures any informality or defect that may have existed in the Order of Reference.

Alexander Mackay,
Commissioner.

15th September, 1870.