No. 52.
The Chief Commissioner to his Honor the Superintendent, Napier.

I have the honour to inform you that the question raised by certain Natives respecting the reserve at Oero has been finally settled the original boundaries as settled by Mr. Pelichet being those page 30to which the Natives are to be considered as having a right. I paid a sum of £50 to the Natives upon the settlement of this question; and I have now the honour to enclose a translation of the deed signed by them. The principal desire of the Natives is to have the right of eel, fishery in the Kohinepari Lake, and the large swamp called the Rotoroa. Although I told them that I would not admit, on the part of the Government, their claim to anything more than what was marked off first and described as their reserve, in the original deed of sale, I should imagine that there could be no objection to allowing them to exercise their right over a swamp that can never be of any use to European settlers, except as a boundary. The Natives have purchased two forty-acre sections, for the purpose of securing their eel-cuts and weirs.