Mr. Mantell to Mr. Domett.

Sir,—

I had yesterday the honor to announce to you the conclusion of the negotiations for the purchase of the Murihiku Block, and of reporting to you, in a separate communication of this date, the reasons which urged me to conclude these negotiations.

I have now the honor to request that, to meet the first instalment of the purchase money, authority be issued to the Sub-Treasurer of the Province to advance from the Land Fund the sum of£l,000.

As to the second instalment (£1,000), I would most urgently beg that (as promised in my original instructions) that amount be remitted to me from Wellington by the earliest opportunity, as the Natives will expect the distribution of it at the Bluff before December.

The first instalment will be paid almost exclusively to the claimants of the eastern and western, and the second to those of the centre portion (Taitai to Dusky Bay) of the block.

This was the most favourable arrangement which remained possible, after the long delay; and I could not but acknowledge the force of the Natives' complaint, that small instalments gave to each a sum insufficient to purchase anything of permanent value which should in after years represent the land to them.

I do myself the honor to annex a short statement showing the Government will not lose by this arrangement as compared with that originally contemplated.

Failing in my endeavours to reduce the demands of the Natives below £2,600, and very unwilling to exceed the large amount stated in my instructions as the maximum, and which would have sufficed had the business been concluded at the time originally fixed, I at last made the following arrangement, which was agreed to by the Natives:—

That, whether the further sum of £600 were granted or not, the land was ceded for the amount named in the deed (£2,000).

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That the payment or non-payment of the £600 was to be left to the Governor, but that I was most strongly to urge His Excellency, in consideration of the delay,—of their long boat-voyages, ending in disappointment, &c.—to award that sum to them, and, when awarded, to direct one-half of it to be distributed at Otago and the other at the Bluff.

I should but imperfectly fulfil my promise did I embrace, for making this recommendation, a time when my own position may be such as to weaken its force. I would therefore respectfully beg that the Governor would suspend his decision until I shall bare had the honor fully to represent the claim, which I shall do so soon as, by the expression of His Excellency's opinion of my proceedings, I may be relieved from the suspense attending the position in which it is, I trust, evident to you that selfish motives, whether of profit or reputation, could never have placed me.

Enclosure in No. 11.