AUCKLAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 332, 26 February 1863, Page 4

AUCKLAND.

The head quarters of H. M. 14th Regt. have been changed from Drury to Otahuhu.

A dividend of £5 per share was to be paid on the 18th by the Coromandel Gold Mining Co. Only ,£1 per share has been paid up. We stated a few days since, that the hearing of the evidence in the Kaipara case on the part of the arbitrators had .been concluded, and that, as there seemed ;no, probability of any agreement being come to,. it was the desire of all parties concerned that the making of the award should be left to Sir G Grey in the capacity of umpire. On Saturday last accor--dingly, the Governor met Tirarau and Hira the representative of Matin, the chiefs of the claimants and their people, 'lhe arbitrtors, two natives on one side, and two Europeans on the other, stated the (case to his Excellencj’’. Tirarau’s claim rested upon descent from the same ancestor as Matiu, and also upon undisturbed possession of the lands in dispute for five generations. The Native Arbi- ■ trators for Matiu insisted that the better right by descent was on Matiu’ s side, but they admitted, we learn, that Tirarau, ' having been so long in possession, ought not now to be driven off and they suggested that both sides should be declared to be in the right and that the disputed territory should be divided. After a long and patient enquiry Sir George Grey decided that as Tirarau’s ancestors had undoubtedly received, part of the land now in dispute as a gift from the ancestors of Matiu, and as they and their descendants had used other portions of it for cultivation and had held the whole, Tirarau and his people could not now be turned off the land so long as they used it for cultivation. But, His Excellency is reported to have said, if Tirarau should in future wish to sell any of this land, then the people of Matiu would be entitled to a proportion of the price, and in case of any difference arising as to the just proportion to be paid, the Government would adjudicate between the claim-

ants. The Governor would also take care that none of the land should be bought except by the Government, and that portion of the land on which the blood of relatives and friends had been shed should remain unsold.

Tirarau, we have been informed, frankly accepted the condition that a portion of the payment for land sold in future should be handed over to the opposing claimants; Te Hira and his people, who are on the losing side, do not display more disatisfaction with an adverse verdict than bold Britons under similar circumstances very frequently exhibit. The judgment is in our opinions a.most just and wise one, and we regret that we are not in a position to report with accuracy the reasons which His Excellency the Governor gave as being those on which he based his decision. We presume that an official narative of a matter so important will be published by authority. —New Zealander.