Akaroa Block.

This block includes the whole of Banks Peninsula, estimated to contain 260,000 acres, inclusive of the portion formerly known as the Nanto Bordelaise Claim of 30,000 acres, and embraces three purchases viz the Port Cooper Purchase, effected in August, 1849, for £200; the Port Levy Purchase, in September, 1849, for £300; and Hamilton's Purchase, in December, 1856, for £200. The total quantity reserved for the Natives in all the purchases was 3,430 acres.

There does not appear to have been any enumeration made of the resident Natives at the time the purchases were effected. The first estimate of their numbers was made in 1844, when it was reckoned they computed 584. At that time a large number of the Natives belonging to settlements on the plains and elsewhere were living on the Peninsula, chiefly at Port Levy. The second estimate was made in 1848, when they were supposed to number 340. Of this number, 200 were apportioned land at Kaiapoi. The first detailed census taken was in 1861; at that date they numbered 211. The population according to the last census is 267; but as the whole of the Akaroa Block has been treated as a portion of Kemp's Purchase it is unnecessary to make any recommendation on their behalf.