E—No. lc

And this was the worst land in their district,

Few tribes in Now Zealand had less cause to fear the encroachment of the Pakeha than the Ngatimaniapoto at Kawhia. Out of a territory of 954,000 acres not more than 53,605 acres have been alienated, leaving 900,395 acres, with a good harbour, and fifty miles of coast, to a Maori population of 2585 persons. The fixed white population of Kawhia amounted, in 1859, to about forty-seven persons only, and was not fast increasing. Of the three harbours lying in or abutting on the Ngatimaniapoto country, Mokau is entirely without alienated territory, and two others, — Aotea and Kawhia, — have but small Missionary and trading stations on their banks : yet the natives of these places were the first to join Kingi's rebellion. On the adjacent harbour of Whaingaroa, where half the land is European, the natives and their Chief William Naylor are conspicuous for their loyalty. The natives who fought at Mahoetahi were of the Ngatihaua from Mata Mata on the Thames. The actions at Matarikoriko and those at Huirangi and the sap were chiefly with the Waikato natives. So far from the Europeans having excluded the Maories from the more fertile land, it is patent to all that the interior land of the Waikato, Waipa, and Taupo— particularly fertile and attractive, and accessible by means of the rivers—-is exclusively in the hands of the natives ; nor has any movement taken place of a nature to alarm them in an agrarian point of view. In the Thames district the Europeans hold 64,731 acres, and in the Waikato about 4343 acres, out of an aggregate area of 2,906,000 acres, and would be represented roughly by the fraction Vo-. The Chiefs of the Taupo country had at the commencement of the King movement urged that the Europeans should be expelled the country. They and the Upper Wanganui Natives afforded assistance in men, arms, and ammunition to the rebels. The Taupo and Upper Wanganui country comprises 2,880,000 acres. The white people hold 2 acres, the fraction is therefore X rr-r-o-,-o-(ro-> Since the commencement of the war offers of blocks of land have been made by the tribes near Auckland and the large settlements, but none by Natives of the more distant interior. It appears then, that as we go farther from settlement, the feeling of hostility to Government becomes stronger, and the desire to exclude the white man, by debarring him from the acquisition of land, the more steadfast. The Waikato tribes object now to a practice which had to some degree obtained, that which they term i the " tikanga rite," of giving leases to squatters, without the cognizance of the Government, While the Taranaki and Ngatiruanui tribes seem to have been actuated by the mere love of marauding and plunder, and to have acted without concert with Kingi, the Waikato appear to have fought for a principle. They have set up a King, and in his name and by him they expect to bring their numbers, united under one head, to bear successfully against the Government. The origin of their disaffection in the interior, was probably a jealousy (so general as to be almost national) of the European wealth, and increasing power —of the wealth that they could not participate in to the extent of the tribes that trafficed nearer to Auckland, and the larger settlements, and. of a power which the Chiefs feared would, by elevating the social position of the individual, undermine their influence amongst the people.

The lands in the Thames, although purchased in 1839 from the natives, have not (save in some insignificant cases) been yet occupied. The natives have scarcely yet been in contact with settlers, and far less had occasion to fear a pressure.

See speeches of Te Heu Heu and others at the native meetings at the commencement of the King movement. The Ngatiwhatua and Kaipara tribes have offered 102,314 acres, near Auckland, since the commencement of hostilities. The natives of Wellington have offered about 54,0(10 acres in the same period.

APPENDIX A. Note.—lt is a peculiar feature in the history of Taranaki that before the regular settlement of the country by the British, it had for several years been almost deserted by the Natives. The Waikato conquered it in 1830, while the chief part of the Ngatiawas were at Waikanae,. but not considering it worth while to retain occupation, they returned Northward to benefit by the trade of Sydney vessels in the harbours of the Thames and Manukau. A miserable remnant of about 30 or 40 Natives of the Ngatiawa lived at Ngamotu point in 1839, when the writer was there, and were prepared to swim off to the Sugar-loaf Island, where they had formed burrows, and \ laid up provisions, in anticipation of a renewed invasion of the Waikatos. At this time Wiremu King, or Whiti as he was called, sailed in the " Tory" from village to village in Cook Strait to pursuade the Ngatiawa to sell Taranaki, in order that he and they might return to the North of the Waitara and dwell there in the security afforded by the presence of the white people, and upon reserves which were promised to be set apart for such purposes. In 1848 Wiremu Kingi and a large section of the Ngatiawa returned and took up their residence on the north bank of the Waitara, where they yet hold about 460,800 acres.

" The fear of second inva&ion being now removed, the refugees began to re-occupy the land"— vide " The Taranaki Question," by Sir William Martin, D.C.L.

APPENDIX B.

On the roads of the Provinces of Wellington and New Plymouth it is, for example, common to meet a greater number of Maori bullock-carts than of vehicles belonging to Europeans * » It often happens that every second craft alongside the pier of the Port of Auckland is owned by Maories.

Note. —Although not brought into account in the preceding pages, the Native (Land) Eeserves and the benefits accruing from them must not be lost sight of. In Wellington and Wanganui, Taranaki and Nelson, these Eeserves were set apart from the period of the commencement of the settlements, and their purposes have been preserved in full integrity. On these lands the Natives have cultivated with more success than on any purely Maori territory. It is not the Natives who 7 e cultivations are interspersed with.those of the settlers that have resisted the Queen's Government and her forces, but chiefly those whose wide and unimproved territories lie most remote from the operations of the colonist.

Memoranda by C. W. Richmond, Esq., Col. Treasurer.—See " Further Papers relative to Native Affairs," 1860. The Ngapuhi, who inhabit this part of New Zealand, are, perhaps, the finest of its tribes. They have been longer and more closely in contact with Europeans than any other, and are at the present time more loyally disops?d and moie anxious to promote European settlement"—lbid,

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FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE NATIVE INSURRECTION.