No. 27.
Mr. Commissioner Johnson to the Chief Commissioner.

In reply to your letter of the 4th ultimo, intimating that the Chiefs Mate, Te Kiri, and Te More, have offered to dispose of their land at Whangarei, Pakiri, and other places, and requesting that I would direct my attention to an investigation of the extent and validity of those claims, in order that an early adjustment of them may be effected, I have the honor to inform you that the Chief Mate came to Whangarei a short time since, and that, in compliance with your request, I have examined the claims of himself and His followers, and beg to enclose a plan of the same as well as the surrounding district, based on Trignometrical observations, which I took with a view of laying down the features of the country with some degree of accuracy.

The portion offered for sale by the Chief Mate is coloured yellow, and the Government blocks by which it is surrounded, red. The land itself is of only average quality, but the situation is important as it opens an outlet to the Government blocks already acquired. The Ruarangi and the Maunga karamea, estimated to contain Sixty-two thousand acres are rather wanting in this respect. I should estimate the contents of the land offered for sale by Mate at from Eight to ten thousand acres (8,000 to 10,000), and on account of its important position I offered to recommend to the Government its purchase for the sum of One thousand pounds (£l,000) This was done previous to the recent instructions on financial matters issued by His Excellency Colonel Gore Browne, but any embarrassment which this matter might have occasioned has been avoided, for Mate treated this liberal offer with great contempt, and, I regret to say, went home highly dissatisfied, Having, as he affirms, been led to understand in town, that the Government were ready to advance him several thousand pounds, contingent on my being able to certify that his claims were valid This unforeseen termination of these negotiations will no doubt prevent Kiri and More offering there lands at present. I have written to inform Mate that as he rejected my offer, I consider myself no longer bound to make the purchase.