No. 7.
Walter Mantell, Esq., to Under Secretary Merivale.

Sir,—

I at last find myself compelled, in order that you may more fully appreciate my position and sense of responsibility toward the Ngaitahu Natives, to place before you two points connected with my relations with them, which I hoped it would not be necessary for me to communicate to you.

1.

That in my last purchase from them, finding that further delay would greatly increase the difficulty of acquisition, and enhance the money price, I concluded the negotiations on my own responsibility, and provided the necessary funds. That, had I not done this, the Natives, if they had consented to a renewal of the negotiations, would have insisted on, and obtained a far higher sum.

For the loss of this they have, therefore, to blame my zeal for the public service, and have consequently a right to expect from me at least equal zeal for their interests, and my desire to be able to look back without regret on proceeding which the last Governor of the Colony so highly commended, may thus cause me to urge their claims with a pertinacity, perhaps, as unusual in the Department as those proceedings themselves were.

2.

That after the interview with Colonel Wynyard, I endeavoured to avert immediate want of the necessary books by sending to the Rev. Mr. Wohlers' school, as well as to individual Natives, a supply which was almost doubled by the kind interest and liberality of Mr. Justice Martin, and the Rev. Mr. Kissling; and that I was urged, in spite of my limited means, to incur this expense, partly indeed by a desire for the advancement of the Natives, but more by a sense of the anomalous position of almost personal liability, in which I, as the former negotiator for their lands, was placed by the peculiar policy of Her Majesty's representatives in the Colony.