a—No. l,

51

PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE

That the surveyor, on his arrival at the Wangapeka, was met by a number of men, who refused to allow him to proceed with his work. That your Memorialists believe the cause of this refusal to be that these men conceive the said blocks of land to be within the boundary of the South-west Gold Fields, as fixed by a Proclamation issued by the Provincial Government in 1868, wherein a certain Mount Owen is mentioned as a boundary point. That a dispute has arisen as to which is Mount Owen, and which is the boundary point of Mount Arthur ; and a strong feeling of dissatisfaction arising from, what appears to your Memorialists to be the partial character of the late investigation, and the unsatisfactory nature of the survey, in so far as these boundary points are concerned. That, from a telegram received from Dr.'Haast (a copy of which is enclosed herewith), and from his map and published account of the same, as also from the testimony which can be procured from two gentlemen, namely, Mr. Burnett and Mr. Mackay, who were with Dr. Haast when the said Mount Owen was named, your Memorialists believe the same to bo very differently situated from the one pointed out by the miners on the ground. Tour Memorialists, therefore, —believing that if the position of Mount Owen were once definitely fixed, it would very much simplify, if not altogether settle, the dispute now existing —beg most respectfully and earnestly to suggest to your honorable Government, that as Dr. Haast explored the country and named the mountain, that gentleman should at once be requested to proceed to Nelson, and, with the assistance of a surveyor, point out and define the position of the said Mount Owen, and cause the boundary line to be traversed from thence to Mount Arthur, as described in the said Proclamation of 1868. And your Memorialists as in duty bound will ever pray. Heetb-t Drew (Chairman of Purchasers' Committee), Alfred Cullifoed, Edw. Everett, Geoege B. Sinclair, William Cookset, Rob. Disiieb, John Detonpoet, ROBT. SIIALLCHASS, Charles McGee, j. hounsell, Each signature representing the purchasers of one of each of the nine original blocks purchased.

Enclosure 2 in No. 66. Copy of Telegram from Dr. Haast to Mr. A. CuLLrFORD, in reply to his Telegram asking for a copy of the Telegram sent to Mr. Domett by Dr. Haast during the investigation, and which reply was not produced by Mr. Domett, or ever made public:— " No. 299. 12th February, 1870. "Do not know exact words of telegram. Substance is, Mount Owen is situated on northern bank of Buller, about 3 (three) miles north-west of junction of Owen with Buller Rivers." Julius Haast.

No. 67. Memorandum by the Seceetahy for Crowst Lands. With the utmost deference I beg leave to differ from the Memorialists when they assert that the investigation carried on by me was " partial." I fear the purchasers are themselves not perfectly free from any suspicion of bias in this matter, and are not the best judges in their own cause. They are possibly a little annoyed at an inquiry resulting in an opinion opposed to their assumed, but untenable, claims. But they are certainly grievously incorrect in their assertion that Mr. Haast's reply to my telegram arrived " during the investigation." The reply from Mr. Haast is dated 12th January, and addressed to me at Wellington, eighteen days after I had sent my Report in to the Colonial Secretary, which was on the 21th of December. The telegram was to the effect that the mountain marked " Mount Owen "on Mr. Burnett's map was the one so named by him (Mr. Haast). lam not going to argue this part of the case over again, except so far as to remark that everything I have heard since the investigation was concluded tends to confirm mo in the opinion it inclined me towards—that Mr. Haast saw one spur of a mountain range, which on the spot he called Mount Owen, and afterwards in other parts of his Report and in Nelson, alluded to and described as Mount Owen the group of mountains called by that name by Mr. Rocbfort, the Government Surveyor; by Mr. Richmond, the Crown Lands Commissioner (who officially named them so on a map produced during the inquiry); by all the residents and the public of Nelson ever since; and lastly, by the miners at Wangapeka. This group is found by Mr. Marchant to be between 5,000 and 6,000 feet high, while the spur on Mr. Burnett's map is about 3,000 feet high —conclusive proof, if any were needed, that the mountain which Mr. Haast saw from the Buller River mouth and Nelson beach was the mountain group on the Commissioner's official map, and not that on Mr. Burnett's. But the purchasers, with an amount of forgetfulness that perfectly astonishes me, seem to assume that I in some way decided, or attempted to decide, which was Mr. Haast's Mount Owen, overlooking or ignoring the fact that in my Report I came to no positive conclusion on the subject at all. I distinctly loft it an open question, though clearly of opinion that the probability was that the facts were those stated above. But had Mr. Haast's answer arrived before the investigation was concluded, Ido