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

No. 32. — The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington, to Mr. Commissioner McLean

No. 32.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington, to Mr. Commissioner McLean.

Manawatu.In reference to a Grant of Land to the Wife and Children of Mr. Cook. Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 31st January, 1852.

Sir,—

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th instant, stating that Otaki, Rangihaeata, and other influential chiefs have engaged to convey, free of any consideration, 200 acres of land on the south bank of the Manawatu to the Native wife and children of Mr. Cook, a settler on that river.

In reply, I have to inform you that, having laid your letter before the Governor-in-Chief, His Excellency observes that the permitting the Natives to give land to the Native wives and half-caste children of Europeans involves a very large and, in some respects, dangerous principle. His Excellency cannot, therefore, depart from the precedent he has before laid down, of not permitting a grant of more than one hundred acres being given in such a case; and Mr. Cook can, under such circumstances, select, as the hundred acres for his wife and children, the land which was claimed by Mr. St. Hill, exercising the land order at such other place as may be approved of by the Land Commissioner.

I have, &c.,

Alfred Domett,
Colonial Secretary.

Donald McLean, Esq., &c.