No. 13.
Mr. Commissioner Johnson to the Chief Commissioner.

I have the honor to inform you that certain Natives of the Tawera tribe have made application to me to be allowed to select Four hundred acres of land in the Waipu Block, which they are willing to pay for at the usual fixed rate of Ten shillings per acre.

I am not aware of the precise arrangements which the Government have entered into with the emigrants from Nova Scotia relative to the reservation of the Waipu for their future location; but if the compliance with this request can be made, it would be a practical lesson to the Natives of this district that they can acquire, by right of purchase from the Government, ample lands for their use with a Crown title in exchange for their own unsatisfactory tenure; and I am convinced that if this fact was once clearly demonstrated, they would all avail themselves of it, and in order to procure the necessary amount of money, they would part with a great portion of their common lands.

The Tawera are a fugitive tribe, driven away originally from the Bay of Plenty, and living by sufferance in several parts of this island. They have no land of their own, and feel the domination of the Ngapuhi over them—which is the reason of their wishing to procure land from the Crown with a view to securing their independence.