East Coast and Poverty Bay District.

During the past year a large area of land has been negotiated for in this district, but, owing to the blocks not being surveyed, most of the transactions are incomplete. The Natives living between the East Cape and Poverty Bay evince a desire to sell or lease to the Crown their surplus lands, and in all probability there will be acquired, within a reasonable time, several valuable blocks suitable for pastoral and agricultural purposes.

The completed transactions are—The purchase of the Tolago Bay Township block, of 252 acres, for £645 3s. 1d.; and the Waihirere Quarry block, at Grisborne, of 28 acres, purchased by Mr. Locke, R.M., for a sum of £114 15s. From this latter block, stone for metalling the roads approaching Gisborne Township is now being quarried. Also, the leases of Mootu block, of 67,980 acres, for fifty years; the Waikohu Matawhai block, of 43,479 acres for twenty-five years; and the Rotukatuku block, of 5,600 acres, for twenty-one years. This last-named block has an extra value on account of its oil springs.

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The incomplete transactions have been the negotiations for the purchase of 11 blocks of land estimated to contain 154,840 acres, on which payments have been made amounting to £3,192 11s. 11d.; and leases over 13 blocks of land, estimated at 225,500 acres, on which advances have been made to the amount of £1,579 2s.