No. 3.
Mr. Mantell to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

Sir,—

An opportunity offering itself of forwarding a letter to Otago, I do myself the honor of transmitting to you, for the information of His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, a sketch of my proceedings since leaving that place.

I reached Tuturau on the Mataura on 14th December ultimo, having been delayed some days on the road by the weather. An old Native whom I took with me as a guide proved perfectly ignorant of the way; but the country, after passing the ranges which bound the Molyneux, was so open as not to prevent my maintaining a course due West by compass, which brought us to the Mataura, a few miles above Tuturau. I left the Molyneux Valley by the Kaihiku Stream, which I followed to its source. By this route, two days' good walking would take a traveller from Moa Hill to Tuturau.

Having set out a reserve at Tuturau, I crossed to the "New River," where I set out two reserves for the Natives. I reached this place on the 27th ultimo, and have not yet succeeded in reducing the demands of the Natives for a reserve of extravagant dimensions sufficiently to justify me in assenting to them.

The country bordering the Mataura, and westward on my route hither, appears excellent, and plentifully wooded, but the climate seems to be wet, stormy, and very changeable.