I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th of May last, enclosing the copy of a report of a Special Committee of the Provincial Council of New Plymouth on the purchase of the Waiwhakaiho Block, and calling upon me to state my reasons for making the several reserves alluded to in the said report.

I shall not trespass upon your time by detailed replies to the statements contained in the report transmitted to me by you; but proceed at once to state the reasons which induced me to make the reserves. And first I beg leave to enclose the copy of a memorandum, drawn up by me and forwarded by you to the Superintendent of New Plymouth, in reply to a letter from hisHonour, dated 25th November, 1854, and which contains a detailed account of all these reserves. In making this memorandum it was not thought necessary to trouble his Honour, with the reasons why these reserves were made: these, however, in obedience to your instructions, I now proceed to explain.

General Reasons why such Liberal Reserves were made.

When the purchase of the Waiwhakaiho Block was effected, a considerable length of time had elapsed since any land had been obtained from the Natives at Taranaki, and it was looked upon as a matter of great importance to make a commencement in any direction and on almost any terms, in the hopes of its leading to further purchases. The Waiwhakaiho Block was never looked upon as being, in itself, of any particular value, and, from its peculiar shape, but a very small portion of it is composed of open and immediately available land, the greater part being, though generally level and rich in soil, so heavily timbered and lying so far inland that its intrinsic value as an additional acquisition of land to the settlement was never thought to be very great. But the fact of making any purchase at all at that time at Taranaki was considered a great point gained, and more particularly so in reference to the Waiwhakaiho Block, because it was looked upon as being (what it afterwards proved to be) the key to the Hua Block, and because many Natives joined in the sale who had previously been obstinate opponents to the sale of land. I may mention Tangutu and Raniera as instances of this. It was also at that time believed that dealing liberally with the Natives in the matter of reserves in this block might operate as an inducement to the Mangaoraka, Waiongana, and Waitara people to sell some of their much-coveted lands, as it was hoped their opposition might become less obstinate when they saw that really nothing more was asked for, or sought to be obtained from them, than those lands which were of no use to themselves or their children. These are generally the reasons which led to such liberal reserves being made in the Waiwhakaiho Block; and I may add that Mr. Henry Halse, who at the time of the purchase filled the office of my Sergeant-Major, and gave me most valuable assistance in conducting the negotiation, was fully aware of all these reserves, and might have explained them to the Provincial Government, in whose service he now holds office. They are equally well known to officers of the General Government now in New Plymouth. I now come to the special reasons connected with the granting of these reserves.

Reserves for Hone Ropiha and Wi te Ahoaho.

The promise to Hone Ropiha and Wi te Ahoaho was the first which was made. It was that each should have one hundred acres in the seaward part of the block and two hundred acres inland in the forest. These reserves were intended as a provision for themselves and for all their relatives: an ample one, certainly, but made ample for the special reason that they had always been told that Government wanted nothing from them but what they could not use themselves. And these men individually deserved liberal treatment at the hands of Government, as it was almost exclusively owing to them that the purchase was effected. Wi te Ahoaho's hundred acres consist of the two sections at Waerengapoka— Native reserves from the foundation of the settlement, which had been occupied by Mr. Nairn. These sections Wi te Ahoaho and his brother never would have given up, and they would have been excepted from the sale had they not been promised as a reserve. Hone Ropiha's hundred acres was originally chosen by me to the eastward of Wi te Ahoaho's, adjoining it, and forming one block. He refused to take this, insisting on retaining his fifty-acre section at Purakau, saying if he got that he would give up his other fifty acres. This I would not agree to, as the Purakau is one of the best sections in the block; and the question was still at issue between us when you arrived at Taranaki in February, 1854, whereupon it was decided by you in favour of Hone Ropiha, who now holds the land. Hone and Wi te Ahoaho had then each to receive two hundred acres in land. Before these were selected by me they both expressed a wish to purchase one hundred acres of their respective reserves, to which I readily acceded, as I had been specially instructed by you to encourage as much as possible the purchase of land by Natives under the Government regulations. In consequence of this wish these two reserves of two hundred acres each were selected by me at a less distance inland than probably they otherwise would have been, as I felt sure that the purchased half of each reserve would in a very short time come into the market, and I could not see why the difference in value between the Government price of 10s. and that which commonly is obtained in New Plymouth should not as well be received by aboriginal natives, who circulate all the money that comes into their hands, and never look forward to hoarding a fortune and quitting the colony, as by European speculators, to whom they are at least not inferior as producers of food and cultivators of the soil which they inherited from their ancestors; and to a share in the benefits arising from the settlement and improvement of which I for one am of opinion that they have a right at least as good as that of any immigrant settler whatsoever. Hone Ropiha's two hundred acres were purposely selected within the boundaries disputed by Henare te Puni and party, because he has much influence over them, which I knew the offer of a good price for one hundred acres would induce him to exercise to its fullest extent; and, as that land could not at the time be offered for purchase by Europeans, I could not see any quicker mode of getting a small piece of it into the market than by allowing Hone Ropiha to become its purchaser. Wi te Ahoaho's two hundred acres were selected by me between the Araheke and Waiwhakaiho Streams, chiefly for the convenience of natural boundaries.

You will thus perceive that pre-emptive rights of selection were not given to these Natives; and I may here state that no such right was given by me in any instance, the only reserves not selected by me being Waerengapoka, and the latter being the only one taken in opposition to my wishes.

Te Ropiha Moturoa.

Five hundred acres were promised to Te Ropiha Moturoa and his people, because Te Ropiha acquainted me that a reserve had been promised to him in Wellington, and that he was aboutpage 26immediately to migrate to Taranaki with a hundred people, who I thought would be much better located on a Native reserve than left to choose their own residences, and perhaps take possession of parts of sections in the hands of the settlers to extort satisfaction for alleged claims upon old purchases, a practice not uncommon in Taranaki. Then, I had heard that Te Ropiha had used his influence very successfully with the absentees in this neighbourhood, and he certainly was very active in rendering me all the assistance in his power in completing the purchase on the spot. Besides this I had some hopes that his influence might be useful at Waiongana, where no other chief would at that time venture to interfere. This reserve might now be reduced, or even done away with altogether, as the projected migration is not, I imagine, likely under present circumstances to take place.

Wairarapa.

I did not then know of Sir George Grey's promise to Wairarapa, nor, as far as I can remember, have I at any time had official intimation of it.

More.

The fifty-acre section to More and his family was given to induce them to remove from Mr. J. Webster's section at Watitiri. I think he had also some claim in the Grey Block. This section was also selected in the land disputed by Henare te Puni.

Rawiri Motutere, Wi Kawaho, Karoraina, and Hopataia.

The reasons for reserving twenty-five acres to Rawiri Motutere and Wi Kawaho are explained in the memorandum enclosed, as are also those for reserving a small piece to Karoraina, and forty acres to Hopataia. The permission to Hopataia to purchase the balance over forty acres was given to encourage the growing desire of the Natives to purchase lands from the Crown.

Matena Tupoki, Wi Tana, and Wi Rqpiha.

The sections to Matena, Wi Tana, and Wi Ropiha were given in the following manner: A fifty acre section was at first promised to these three men in common, as one of the original terms of purchase of the block. They afterwards objected to holding the land as tenants in common, and asked for separate reserves of twenty acres each, and for permission to purchase thirty more, so that each might have a section. This, to encourage the purchase of Crown lands by Natives, I agreed to, and selected the lands in their present position, knowing they would soon come into the market, with which view I specially provided that the twenty-acre reserves should be at the end of the sections fronting on the river, as being the least valuable portions of the land Wi Ropiha's section is now to be purchased entirely, in consequence of a subsequent arrangement by which he gave up his claim to the twenty-acre reserve.

Kirihipu.

The section reserved for Kirihipu and others was given to them for the purpose mentioned in the enclosed memorandum, and to prevent their relatives on their arrival from giving trouble to the settlers by taking possession of this or other lands.

Poharama.

Poharama's fifty-acre section was applied for by him for the same purpose; and on my refusing to make any further reserves he asked permission to purchase it, which I gave him for the same reason as that for which similar permission was given to others.

Hohua and Manahi

The two reserves to Hohua and Manahi, and their relatives, were promised at the time when the payment was made, and were given principally for the reason that both parties had no land of their own on which to settle, Hohua and his relatives having been driven off the Moturoa. Reserve by Poharama, and Manahi's people being threatened with ejection by Porutu from the land occupied by them at the Ratapihipihi, near Barrett's Reserve.

Matena Tupoki and Wi Ropiha.

The section at the mouth of the Waiwhakaiho River was promised by Sir George Grey years ago to Matena Tupoki and Wi Ropiha if the land should ever be purchased by the Crown. It would have been excepted from the sale had I not promised to make it a reserve.

The foregoing are, as far as they can be compressed into the limits of an official letter, the reasons which induced me to sanction the reserves and permissions to purchase lands given to Natives in the Waiwhakaiho Block. I beg to return herewith the tracing enclosed in your letter under reply.