Matena Tupoki and Wi Ropiha.

The section at the mouth of the Waiwhakaiho River was promised by Sir George Grey years ago to Matena Tupoki and Wi Ropiha if the land should ever be purchased by the Crown. It would have been excepted from the sale had I not promised to make it a reserve.

The foregoing are, as far as they can be compressed into the limits of an official letter, the reasons which induced me to sanction the reserves and permissions to purchase lands given to Natives in the Waiwhakaiho Block. I beg to return herewith the tracing enclosed in your letter under reply.