No. 16.
Memorandum on Native Reserves in Otago and Southland by Mr. G. S. Cooper.

These Provinces were acquired from the Natives in three distinct purchases—

1.	The Otago block, by Captain Symonds.
2.	The Murihiku block, by Mr. Mantell.page 66
3.	The Stewart's Island purchase, by Mr. Clarke.

In each of these, of course, reserves were made for the benefit of the sellers.

I am not aware that much has to be done in reference to reserves in the first-named block; but one case has come under the notice of the Government, that of the Karoro reserve, near the mouth of the Clutha River in Molyneux Bay, which requires to be surveyed, to facilitate the issue of a grant. The Provincial authorities of Otago have refused to survey this land. There may be other similar cases in this block, but I am not aware of any.

2. In the Murihiku block the Chief Surveyor of Southland states that the reserves are so inaccurately surveyed that they must all be done over again; and also that lines of road crossing them must be marked out, and the land reserved before grants are issued. He instances one reserve, which is 260 acres in excess of what is shown in the plan, and of which one boundary line is 30 chains out in length. I gather from records that the Provincial Government of Southland are willing to survey these reserves, but expect the Colony to pay the expense; but it is suggested that an arrangement might be made to share it.

In the two blocks referred to, the difficulty is only one of survey, the locality of the reserves being defined, and the land being, as far as I can ascertain, in the actual occupation of the Natives.

3. But in the Stewart's Island purchase a great and substantial injustice has been inflicted on the Natives and on a large number of half-castes for whom land was specially contracted to be reserved, by the delay in defining the reserves, a delay which has now reached the length of very nearly six years.

The claim of the half-castes was brought under the notice of the Legislature by a petition from Andrew Thompson to the Legislative Council last session, and the Council passed a resolution praying His Excellency to give immediate effect to the recommendation of their Public Petitions Committee, who urged that steps should be taken without delay to put the half-castes in possession of the land which had been promised them. The obstacle to marking off this land is not only the ordinary difficulty of obtaining a survey and the question of who is to pay for it (there are 94 sections to be laid out), but there is also the fact that the half-castes' land, and some other reserves as well, are to be laid off after certain "old land claims" are disposed of. Many of the claimants to these "old claims" cannot now be found, and there is reason to believe that most, if not all, of them are unable to defray the expense of surveying their claims. It would, I think, be advisable if the parties interested (the half-castes and the Provincial Government) could be got to agree to it, to exchange the claim on Stewart's Island for a block of land on the main, on which the half-caste families could be located.

There is another question to be settled in reference to the Stewart's Island purchase. By the terms of purchase £2,000 were to be invested in purchase of land in the Province of Southland, as an ndowment for educational and other purposes for the benefit of the vendors.^* This land has recently been selected, and has to be granted to three trustees, who are to execute a Deed of Trust. These trustees (two of whom had better, if possible, be residents in Southland, and the third, Mr. A. Mackay) have to be appointed.

The Provincial Government also wish to know by whom the expense of surveying this land is to be borne. There can be no doubt, in this case, at least, of the liability of the Province to execute the survey, as it is as much a purchase of their land as if it bad been made with 2,000 sovereigns, instead of being, as it was, a remission of payment of £2,000 of the Stewart's Island purchase money, which the Province was under engagement to provide. But the question still remains unsettled.

I respectfully recommend that Mr. Alexander Mackay, from Nelson, should be instructed to accompany me to Otago and Southland, as he is better acquainted than any other person with the state of the reserves in those Provinces.