Enclosure in No. 12.
Copy of Letter from the Colonial Secretary to the Superintendent of Nelson.

Sir,—

In reference to your Honor's letter of the 18th February last, and generally to the subject of the Native reserves at Nelson, I am directed by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor to inform you that he has appointed Messrs. Poynter, Carkeek, and Tinline, to be a Board of Management of Native Reserves for the Nelson district, and to request that in communicating to these gentlemen their appointment, you will inform them by letter that their duties will be to examine and enquire into the present state of the reserves, and the arrangements heretofore or at present existing page 277in reference to them, to hear and consider all applications, either for remission or abatement of rents, and requests for leases or renewal of leases of lands, &c., &c., to recommend to your Honor such steps or arrangements as they may consider just and equitable to promote the regular increase of a fund from these reserves, and to make or receive, consider and recommend the adoption or rejection of all suggestions or proposals as to the mode of expending the funds raised in furtherance of the purposes with which the reserves were set apart.

The Board not being the responsible parties, it is essential that none of their recommendations should be carried out until submitted to and approved by your Honor; and in your periodical reports upon the subject, it is desirable that both their recommendations and your Honor's decisions should in all cases be stated.

The duties of the Board, and its relation to your Honor being thus laid down, I am to request that you will take immediate steps for the best and most practical arrangement of all outstanding questions connected with the subject.

Public notice should be given that the Crown is now prepared to issue leases upon such terms and conditions as are recommended by the Board, and approved of by your Honor.

All proceeds of the reserves are to be paid into the Local Treasury, under the head of the "Native Reserve Fund," to be kept distinct from the ordinary revenue; and all payments on account of Natives must be drawn specially from this fund.

Among the questions submitted to the Board will of course be those raised in your Honor's letter of the 18th February, viz.—Dr. Greenwood's proposals for a model farm and Hospital, the repairs of the Native hostelries at Nelson, and the unauthorised occupation or possession by Natives of some of the reserves at Motueka. With respect to the last it will be your Honor's care to secure to the Natives possession of sufficient land for their own requirements, and to act with respect to the residue upon the advice of the Board upon the principles and under the limitations above laid down.

With respect to proposals for new modes of outlay of the funds, your Honor will be good enough to bear in mind, before sanctioning any such recommended by the Board, that the Reserve Fund has already several heavy debts to meet, among which are about £200 to the representatives of the late H. Thompson, Esq., for selections, which claim should be considered first; an unascertained sum to liquidate a heavy charge made by Dr. Wilson for attendance, medicine, and clothing, supplied to the Natives in the first years of the settlement's existence, which should be second in order of payment; and a sum which may possibly amount to near £300, to purchase from the Bishop of New Zealand a house built for a Native school, in anticipation of the funds of the Trust, which will be the last in consideration of these liabilities. All these should, of course; be satisfied or arranged, before any new expenses, not absolutely necessary, are incurred. When that is done, your Honor and the Board will probably consider the repair of the Native hostelries at Nelson, as being for the benefit of all the Natives, both in the settlement and surrounding districts, an object of most immediate interest and general importance.

I have, lastly, to request that your Honor will report upon the state and prospects of the funds, and the arrangements made with respect to the subjects alluded to above, as soon as possible after the conclusion of the arrangements.