The following letter, published in the Wellington Advertiser, contains the natives reply:—

"The Manawatu Question.

In your paper of yesterday's issue you published Dr. Featherston's 'conciliatory memorandum,' in which he 'agrees to refer the claims of non-sellers in the Rangitikei-Manawatu block to arbitration, subject to the following conditions.' You state 'it is impossible to say now in what temper the Natives who have throughout adhered implicitly to the non-selling principle will receive this proffer of conciliation.' The following appears at the foot of a long statement sent to me by the Ngatikauwhata of what passed before Dr. Featherston paid his late visit to Rangitikei:—Dr. Featherston replied, 'I agree to the investigation.' Some of us went to Whanganui to fix a day for the investigation to take place, when Mr. Buller said, 'My friends, you must all agree that this land is in Dr. Featherston's hands. After that we will have an inquiry, and let the judges decide whether there is any land belonging to you in his hands.' We did not agree to that absurd proposal of Mr. Buller's, because we are not aware that our land is in his hands, but what we consent to is that the judges should page 37 try and discover where Dr. Featherston's land is. Dr. Featherston would not agree to our proposal.'

"The following is a statement handed to me by Parakaia:—'On the 21st and 22nd June Dr. Featherston sent for me to his office. He wanted me to agree to settle Rangitikei by arbitration. He proposed that we should choose two Maoris—one each—and one Pakeha, and that the investigation should take place at Rangitikei. I replied, 'I do not agree that you and I should have a little insignificant investigation, but let the investigation take place at Wellington, that there may be a great number of Pakeha gentlemen to judge between us. You have published in a great many newspapers; I have also done the same; the whole island has been made aware of our dispute. I do not agree to what you propose. I said to him plainly, let there be a great many Pakena gentlemen present to condemn me, that one and another may say to me—' Parakaia you are in the wrong; that I may hear them say that you are in the right; perhaps you are afraid of public investigation.' To this he made no reply. I agreed to what he proposed with respect to Paretao; he was to have arranged the matter on the 2nd July, but as he never came he must let that pass.

"Parakaia te Pouepa."

"The following was sent to me by the Natives, being the reply from Ngatikauwhata, the hapu of Ngatiraukawa, to whom Dr. Featherston made the offer of arbitration:—' I agree that the title to the whole block lying between Rangitikei and Manawatu should be investigated, that it may be found out how far the sellers are in the right, and how far the non-sellers are in the right; that the basis of this investigation be that each hapu have their separate claims investigated to their portions of the block; that the judges shall inquire what land in the block belongs to the sellers—what land belongs to the non-sellers. What we wish is that each hapu should prove their claim as a whole—not that each individual should be called upon to prove his separate claim; that we will not sign our names to Dr. Featherston's paper.'

"From what the natives said to me themselves, I gather that they want to have the whole matter settled according to law. They are standing out for those 'rights' which Dr. Featherston told the House, on August 7th, 1860, 'the Government were bound to respect and preserve inviolate.' They want to see a practical illustration, in 1867, of what has hitherto only appeared in a memorandum drawn in 1860. 'The grand desire of the British colonists in respect of the Natives is to see the Maori people rendered amenable in their dealings with the settlers to British law;' or, as it is expressed further on in the memorandum, 'that all the inhabitants of New Zealand should be subjected in their mutual dealings to the control of one equal law.'—I am, &c,