I have the honor to report to you that, in accordance with the instructions contained in the Hon. the Colonial Secretary's blank cover No.—, dated the 7th December, I have marked and settled the boundaries of the Ramarama purchase with the original Native sellers and the owners of the adjoining land, according to the enclosed plan, taken by magnetic bearings, with estimated distances; and that this block, containing about 18,000 acres, is now ready for the Assistant-Surveyor to proceed with the survey.

These boundaries are strictly in accordance with the description given by Jabez Bunting at the date of the purchase in 1844.

Tapu on Road.

I have been requested by the inhabitants of this district, both Europeans and Natives, to represent to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor the great inconvenience they experience from the tapu placed on the old road to Waikato, and the threatened shutting-up of the present very important pathway, which has been made by the private enterprise of a few individual Natives who are not disposed to allow it to be made available by the public; and to express their hopes that His Excellency would cause one of the survey lines to be cut, of sufficient width to be made available as a path to the river, as everything of the sort attempted on other except Crown land is subject to be closed in a similar manner at the caprice of the Native owners of the ground.

The eastern boundary line of this block is a shorter cut across the ranges and a more direct route into the interior than any other which I have yet seen.