No. 222, Sess. II.—Petition of Retreat Tapsell.

Petitioner states that about the year 1864 the leading chief of the Arawa Tribe—namely, Tohi te Ururangi—fell in battle; that the Governor, in recognition of his services in the field, granted a pension of £20 to Ngatai, his only daughter; that in 1881 the said Ngatai received notice that the Government intended to reduce the pension by £10, leaving her only £10 per annum. In consequence of the above the said Ngatai Tapsell considers herself aggrieved, and asks for consideration and relief.

I am directed to report as follows:—

That the original pension granted in 1864 on account of the death, in war, of the father of the petitioner's wife was £26 per annum. For some reason not minuted this sum was reduced, in 1866, to £20, one half payable under "The Military Pensions Act, 1866," and the other half from the Native Civil List. So the payments continued till 1880, when the latter half was struck off under a misapprehension of the history of the pension.

The Committee considers that the pension should be restored to the amount of £20 per annum, as paid from 1866 to 1880, and that the arrears from 1880, calculated upon this basis, should be paid over to the petitioner's wife; and, further, that the Government should take into its consideration whether, under all the circumstances of the case, the full pension of £26 per annum, as originally granted, should not for the future be paid to the wife of the petitioner.