No. 59.
Mr. Commissioner Searancke to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

In accordance with your instructions to me to assist his Honor the Superintendent of Auckland, on his visit to this District, in effecting any purchase of land, I have the honor to inform you that I waited on his Honor on his arrival on the 16th ultimo, and was enabled to obtain for him from the principal Chiefs a promise to cede to the Government the necessary land for the road when laid out between Whangarei and Otaika River.

His Honor also subsequently requested me to endeavour to purchase the whole of the land through which the foregoing road passes, between Whangarei and the Otaika River, an area of Four to Five thousand acres. This I have taken steps to do, but from there being several claimants from different Tribes, will not be able to complete it for some time.

I attended on his Honor to give him any assistance in my power while here, and accompanied him on the 20th ultimo on his overland trip to within twenty miles of the Bay of Islands, to point out the different lines of route.