No. 2.
H. T. Kemp, Esq., to the Chief Protector.

In accordance with my instructions of the 4th ultimo, I proceeded on a mission from the Bay of Islands to the district of the Kaipara, with a view of obtaining every information relative to the purchases of land made by the Europeans from the Natives of that settlement, to disabuse their minds of the ill-concerted reports which have been circulated by evil-disposed British subjects, prejudicial to the interests of Her Majesty's Government, and to collect as much knowledge of the character and local advantages as that valuable part of the country affords.

Having obtained a guide from the chief Pomaré, we commenced our journey on Saturday, the 6th of March, and after three days' travelling arrived at the head of the River Wairoa, where we found the chiefs Tirarau and Waiata, with their most able men, busily engaged in felling and squaring kauri spars. These people received us very cordially, and we experienced from them every kindness and assistance. On the same day we held a conference, and the Government, with, its present and future designs, were the main topics of conversation. I endeavoured to explain fully and explicitly, the page 3gracious intentions of Her Majesty, as represented by His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, towards the aboriginal inhabitants of this Island. I referred them more particularly to the Treaty of Waitangi. To this they readily agreed, and admitted their clear understanding of the same. They had heard that an official communication had come from Her Majesty, forbidding the traffic of firearms and ammunition of every description. This report I undertook publicly to deny, and with a little explanation their suspicions on this head were allayed, and their minds at once divested of those apprehensions this information was naturally, calculated to inspire. They adverted to the exercise of magisterial power in the country, as applicable to the Natives, specifying several instances of New Zealanders who have been arrested and committed to gaol for misdemeanours, arguing that they were very well qualified to keep their own people in subjection. I told them that the able interference of tbe Magistrates among the Natives who had committed robberies had been patronized and approved of by the chiefs or masters of the respective culprits, and was a great preventive of future depredations. On this point I succeeded in satisfying their untutored minds, and convinced them of the protection they, with the white people, received by the establishment of law and justice in this colony. I also visited the chiefs Paikea and Weinga, who appear to exercise great influence among their people, and from whom we experienced every civility. The Natives, however, residing immediately on the Kaipara assume a character different from the generality of New Zealanders, being very presumptuous, and their manners offensive. They are possessed of vague and strange ideas concerning the settlement of Europeans in their country, asserting it is a precedent to a final extermination of their tribes and people. This information they have derived from one William Stephenson (a Native chief of that district), who has recently returned from Van Diemen's Land, assisted by a settler of Hokianga, who accompanied him. This chief, soon after his arrival, convened a meeting of the principal chiefs of Kaipara, and publicly declared that sooner or later they would become slaves, would be disinherited of their lands, and eventually totally exterminated. This, therefore, became a source of much excitement much conversation, and disputation; but I was glad to find that these detrimental objections had made but little impression on their minds derogatory to Her Majesty's Government. I used my influence to convince thein to the contrary, and they appeared glad that I had visited them…. They still remain incredulous, but in no way hostile to the measures of Government, and I beg to submit that frequent interchanges with the New Zealanders of official and authorized persons will silence the Europeans, and assist the Natives in their interrogations concerning Her Majesty's Government. In the interim between these several meetings I collected all possible information regarding the purchases of land in the Kaipara and its vicinity, and herewith I have the honour to enclose a list of claims, with their particulars, preparatory to investigation; but I think it improbable that the Natives will attend the claimants to the township of Auckland for further examination. The Native inhabitants of Kaipara amount to about eight hundred; that of: the white population not more than seventy persons.

The tract of country from the Bay of Islands to the head of the Kaipara (with, the exception of a small portion in the neighbourhood of the Kawakawa and Waiomio) is exceedingly barren, and unworthy of cultivation. That, however, on the Rivers Wairoa and Otamatea—particularly on their banks—is very fertile, and affords ample scope for European location and cultivation, abounding in kauri and kahikatea timber.

We arrived at Auckland on the 20th, after an absence of fourteen days, during which period, the weather being very favourable, our party did not experience any indisposition.