Enclosure.
The Assistant Native Secretary to the __ Commissioners of Native Reserves.

In reply to the letter addresed by you to the Hon. the Attorney-General, dated 23rd June last, proposing questions respecting the legal powers of the Commissioners of Native Reserves, I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you that the Attorney-General, upon the facts of the case as stated by yourselves, is of opinion that the lands given to the Natives in exchange for their cultivations by Colonel McCleverty, acting on behalf of the Government, are not Native reserves within the meaning of "The New Zealand Native Reserves Act, 1856."