5

G.—2c

since 1848 to the present time, amounts to 18,260 acres 3 roods 16 perches, made up as follows, viz., —6,359 acres set apart immediately after the purchase, 1,170 acres 2 roods 16 perches subsequently added by the General and Provincial Governments, 5,937 acres 1 rood 16 perches reserved on the "West Coast in 1860, and 5,063 acres 2 roods 24 perches awarded by the Native Land Court in 1868 in final satisfaction of the engagements in the deed of purchase. Of the total quantity, 6,552 acres and 2 roods are situate in Canterbury, 5,937 acres 1 rood 16 perches in Westland, and 5,770 acres and 3 roods in Otago. The reserves in Westland belong solely to the persons who were parties to the sale of the district in 1860. The chief measures that have been undertaken in the southern provinces to carry out the promises made to the Natives to provide them with schools and hospitals, &c, was an attempt made in 1857 by Governor Browne to build a hostelry for the Natives at Otago, which was frustrated by the Assembly declining to vote the money for the purpose. An arrangement was also made about the same time by the Government, when handing over the hospital at Dunedin to the Provincial authorities, that the Native sick should be attended to, and that a dispensary should be established and medical aid extended to them at their villages, in addition to the maintenance and relief of Native patients admitted into the hospital, an arrangement that seems to have been entirely disregarded. In 1865, in furtherance of the intention to provide medical aid for the sick, the General Government appointed medical officers at all the principal settlements. No schools were established until 1868, excepting one at Kaiapoi, towards which the General and Provincial Governments contributed £750. The schools now in operation are conducted under the general scheme of education that obtains in the Colony for the Natives under the Native Schools Act, and cannot be considered as special institutions. Mr. Hunter Browne was appointed in 1865 to administer Native affairs in the southern province, but, although various recommendations were made by him as to the best mode of carrying out the unfulfilled pledges of the Government, nothing of any importance was effected. A hostelry was erected at Lyttelton in 1865 at a cost of £500, including the price of the land. Small sums have been contributed from time to time by the Government towards the erection of buildings for religious purposes at several of the settlements. The total sum expended for all purposes, inclusive of the proportion paid towards the Native School at Kaiapoi, would probably amount to £1,500, a mere trifle in comparison to the amount involved in the fulfilment of the pledges made by the Government, had they been carried out in their entirety. With reference to the claims raised by the Natives to " tenths" within the Otago Block purchased by the New Zealand Company in 1844, there is ample evidence to be obtained by all who choose to peruse the Parliamentary Papers published by the Imperial Government, and the New Zealand Company's Eeports, of the intention to make these reserves on the same principle as obtained in the other settlements founded by the company. Eeference to Captain Symonds' report on the Otago purchase, dated 2nd September, 1844, will show that he abstained, at Colonel Wakefield's request, from inserting in the deed of cession any express stipulation with regard to further reserves. Allusion is also made to the subject in Colonel Wakefield's report to the secretary of the company, under date 31st August, 1844 (vide New Zealand Company's 17th report, p. 142), in which he states that these reserves cannot be made till the surveys are completed and selections are made. Major Eichmond, in his letter of the 23rd May, 1844, to Governor Fitzroy, also alludes to these reserves, and states his intention to appoint Captain Symonds to select them. The 13th clause of the agreement of 1840 empowered the Imperial Government to make reservations of lands within the company's settlements for the benefit of the Natives (vide Lord Stanley's despatch to Governor Fitzroy, dated 18th April, 1844). Mr. Harrington, the Secretary to the New Zealand Company, in communicating to the principal agent the amended terms of purchase for the Otago Association Block, distinctly admits on the part of the company the right of the Government to make reserves for the Natives in that block, in addition to those lands which, as they were merely excluded from the purchase, could not be considered Native reserves under the New Zealand Company's scheme. Evidence of the intention to make such reserves on the part of the founders of the settlement is also to be found in the 6th paragraph of the original prospectus of the settlement of 1845. The original scheme of the New Edinburgh settlement composed 2,400 properties, the price of each property being fixed at £120 10s. The proportion for the Natives therefore, had the original intention been carried out to set apart " tenths," would have been 240 properties, consisting of 60 town acres, 2,400 acres of suburban land, and 12,000 acres of rural land, or 14,460 acres in all, representing a total value of £29,920 ; to this a further sum should be added for thirty years' interest, to be calculated on the basis of a fair rental for the land according to its relative value. I trust it will be understood that, in advocating the cause of the Natives, I am not actuated by feelings of sentimentalism, —my only desire being to assist, as far as lies in my power, to make the several questions clear to all who may interest themselves in them; and all that is urged is that a fair and generous view of the case should be taken when the circumstances are thoroughly comprehended, more especially as these claims are purely of an equitable character, and could not be taken into a Court of law, excepting in the form of a petition of right, the promises upon which they are based not having been entered in the deeds of purchase, as full reliance at the time was placed in the honor of the Crown that they would be fulfilled to the letter. The total population of the South and Stewart's Island, inclusive of Euapuke, is 1,811, in the proportion of 995 males and 816 females ; but if the half-castes and their descendants are added, the entire number is 2,608, viz. 1,417 males and 1,191 females. I append an amended return in place of the one forwarded under cover of my letter of the 17th instant, as the information then needed has since come to hand; also a return showing the total population, inclusive of half-castes, in each Province. Judging from the best information obtainable on the subject, the purely aboriginal race] is gradually melting away, and their place being taken by the mixed race. According to data partly