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An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

The Native Secretary to His Excellency Colonel T. Gore Browne, C.B., Governor

The Native Secretary to His Excellency Colonel T. Gore Browne, C.B., Governor.

Hauraki—Report of Visit to that District. Native Secretary's Office, Auckland, 5th June, 1857.

Sir,—

I have the honor to report for your Excellency's information the result of my late visit to the Thames and Coromandel Harbour Districts.

Pukorokoro.

1. First—After leaving Auckland I proceeded to the Thames, where I had a conference with the Ngatipaoa tribe respecting the purchase of the Piako District. The Ngatipaoa chiefs followed me in their canoes to Pukorokoro, a small river to the west of the Piako, where I found Mr. Drummond Hay and a party of Natives. I held a meeting with the whole of the claimants, who agreed to proceed with Mr. Hay to point out the boundaries of their land, and settle their conflicting claims and differences respecting such portions as were claimed by other tribes. This being completed, Mr. Hay was instructed (a copy of which is herewith enclosed) to furnish a plan of the district about to be ceded, estimated at 140,000 acres, and a date was to be fixed on which all the claimants should be assembled at Auckland to effect a final settlement of that long-pending question.
2. Secondly—From Pukorokoro I proceeded up the Thames in the expectation of meeting Taraia, who had left there some days previously; consequently I have not been able to see him in reference to the purchase of some land he offered to the Government in the Coromandel District, near Cape Colville.

Patene Puhata's Offer of Land at Coromandel.

3. Thirdly—From the Thames I came back to Waiheke for the chief Puhata, who has offered to give up a space of land containing about four or five square miles for the purpose of gold-digging, which offer may be availed of by the Government, if necessary; although I conceive it would be more prudent to discourage the search for gold until negotiations connected with the purchase are more matured.
4. There is at present a general indisposition on the part of the Natives to alienate their lands at Coromandel Harbour, and, with the exception of the unsold portions of Mercury Island and a few small blocks on the main, there is nothing else open for immediate purchase in that district. These places they offer should be purchased as a means of leading to more extensive sales; but this must be done with caution as, if the Natives find an eagerness on the part of the Government to acquire their land, the opposition of the Natives will increase in the same proportion as the eagerness of the Government is manifested. As far as I can ascertain it is not so much a question of price that will weigh with them in this matter as a national feeling which prevails among many of the New Zealand tribes by which they enter into leagues and confederations against the sale of their country. Moreover, at Coromandel they are apprehensive that the discovery of gold in any quantity would lead to such an influx of disorderly Europeans as might annihilate or exterminate them.

Under all the circumstances I did not deem it prudent to press negotiations during my stay there, considering it more advisable to acquire information and disabuse the Natives of some of the fears they entertained, and to lead them to a more favourable consideration of the question.

Mr. James Preece.

In furthering this object the Government would be very much aided by securing the services of Mr. Preece, who has been resident in the colony as a missionary for the last twenty-six years, having lived, the greater portion of the time in the Thames District. Mr. Preece is now retired from the mission service. He is thoroughly acquainted with the tribes, and knows the extent and general position of their claims. I would therefore recommend that he should be employed to carry on preliminary negotiations for such lands in the Coromandel District, where he is residing, as the Natives may from time to time be disposed to alienate, and in the meantime, until the work accumulates, that he should receive pay at the rate of One hundred pounds (£100) per annum.

I have, &c.,

Donald McLean,
Native Secretary.

His Excellency the Governor.