No. 35.
Mr. Commissioner Searancke to the Chief Commissioner.

I have the honor to submit, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, the following Report on the late meeting of the Ngatiteata tribe at Waiuku to receive the balance of the money due on the lands on the South side of Manukau Harbour. The meeting as called by you at Waiuku, on the 8th ult., was, from the absence of Te Katipa, (detained by the illness of his son, Te Kepa, at Waiuku,) without any result.

On my arrival at Waiuku with Te Katipa, on the 23rd ultimo, I found that the Natives had returned to their settlements. I immediately sent round to them, and, after some delay, succeeded in re-assembling them at Waiuku on Monday, the 28th ultimo.

Notwithstanding the many conflicting claims and statements, the Natives assembled evinced throughout a general wish that every one having a claim on the land should receive a portion of the payment, which wish on their part was, so far as I was enabled to judge, very fairly carried out. The sum of Two thousand pounds (£2,000) was demanded by them as the final payment; this it was not in my power to consent to; but, in addition to the sum of One thousand pounds (£1,000) which I had received, I consented, subject to the approval of His Excellency the Governor, to make another and final payment of Two hundred pounds (£200) to the Katipa Te Awarahi.

I consented to this on the following grounds:—

• 1st. That the Natives were on the point of again dispersing, when the settlement of this long pending negotiation would have been indefinitely postponed.
• 2nd. That its situation on the Manukau harbour, together with its proximity to Auckland, its valuable forests of Kauri timber, must render it a district valuable for European settlement.
• 3rd. It is a step towards the annexation of a large block of land to the already purchased Waiuku district. I may also be permitted to call attention, as one important feature in this case, to the large number of advances made, extending, over a period of nine years, for which I have been thus enabled finally to settle, by obtaining land.

On these grounds, I recommend this additional sum, with the full confidence that the completion of this long-pending negotiation will tend to other sales of land in this district by the aboriginal owners.