I have the honor to inform you that, in accordance with the arrangement entered into with the Surveyor-General in Auckland, I went on the 7th instant to the Slippery Creek to meet Epiha for the purpose of settling with him the boundary of Te Puni, purchased from Ngatiteata, which he disputes, but, that chief not appearing by the 9th instant, I took the opportunity of visiting Mohi, who was in the neighbourhood, and, having been joined in the meantime by Mr. Ormsby, the Contract Surveyor, we proceeded to the place and defined and settled finally the boundaries of the Paraheka and Roto purchases with the Natives of Patumahoe, the adjoining district.

Those two blocks are estimated to contain about 7,000 acres, and are for the most part available for agriculture. The Puni is the tract of land abutting on the Roto, and extending to the River Waikato; and I thought it so desirable to get the boundaries of this place also settled (so that a definite line could be drawn on this side to the Waikato between the Crown and Native lands) that I returned on the 12th instant to Pukaki and Mangere to persuade Epiha to keep his word and accompany me to the Puni for that purpose.

To this Epiha would have complied had he not been compelled to accompany Te Whero Whero to Waikato, where some important affairs amongst themselves required his presence; he however deputed a young man named Pera (one of the owners of the Puni) to go with me; this, Pera was preparing to do when the arrival of a summons from the Resident Magistrate at Auckland for him to appear as witness in a civil case between two Europeans, on the 21st instant, prevented him.