(No. 5.)
Mr. W. B. White to Mr. Fenton.

With reference to your letter of 10th June, 1867, No. 521, I have the honour to report that I have found little difficulty in the working of "The Native Lands Act, 1865." Daring the many years I have been in this district I have had much to do with the Native lands, and had in a measure prepared the way by assisting to define the boundaries of the various Native claimants. The surveys have been generally backward, but the chief cause has been in the poverty of the Natives. They are in many instances unable to pay for the survey and the expenses of the Court, which has deterred them from bringing so many cases before the Court as they otherwise would have done.

Many of the grants issued have been avowedly obtained to enable the owners to sell to Europeans. Those which have been obtained for their own use the proprietors are living upon, but they have not been subdivided as yet. The Act itself is simple and easily worked, but it appears to me that, taking into consideration the very great desirability of inducing the Natives as speedily as possible to hold their lands under title from the Crown, every inducement ought to be held out to them by the Government to obtain grants. I would, therefore, abolish all fees upon inalienable property, except the fee for the Crown grant, and when the property is alienable an extra fee should be charged by the Treasurer on the transfer. When agreements to sell lands have been entered into before the survey, it is probable the purchasers have agreed with the sellers to pay the Court expenses. But the expenses deter the Natives from coming before the Court, unless they have previously agreed to sell the land. I would also suggest that the 74th clause should be altered so as to enable a conveyance to be made to a person on the attestation of a duly qualified interpreter, before a Judge or a Justice of the Peace, that the translation was correct, and was understood by the conveyor, instead of requiring all the parties to make the transfer in the presence of a Judge or Justice of the Peace. I have known persons to wait two months at Whangaroa before the necessary forms could be complied with, no Justice being resident in the district, and the expense incurred by requiring a number of Natives to travel a considerable distance is looked upon as a hardship. In this district the Natives have shown great anxiety to place as many names on the grant as possible, which, of course, adds considerably to the expense when they are required to go to a distance to transfer their property.