I.—3b

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to obtain and furnish certain information to the Committee. I produce the following telegrams forwarded and received, in accordance with the Chairman's direction :— "Urgent" Telegram, 12th December, 1887. —From Under-Secretary, Native Department, to Registrar of the Native Land Court, Auckland.—Chairman, Native Affairs Committee, directs me to obtain by telegram the reasons which led Judge Monro to recommend absolute restriction on Maungatautari Blocks Nos. 1 and 2, vide certificates and recommendations dated 18th April, 1871. Please wire " Urgent " the minutes on the subject, and forward the minute-book by the first mail." —T. W. Lewis. To that telegram I received the following reply : — 12th December, 1887.—Maungatautari No. 1 and No. 2 were made inalienable by sale on the application of the Native owners.—E. Hammond, Registrar, Native Land Court, Auckland. " Urgent," 12th December, 1887.—From Under-Secretary, Native Department, to the Begistrar of the Native Land Court, Auckland.—The Chairman of the Native Affairs Committee desires to ascertain, if possible, whether the grantees of the Maungatautari Blocks Nos. 1 and 2 have sufficient other land. Please obtain and supply information, if you can. Reply, in the first place, by telegram ; also by letter. To that I received the following answer, bearing the same date (12th December, 1887) : — I could not say with any degree of certainty whether the grantees of Maungatautari Nos. 1 and 2 have sufficient other lands. Some of them are dead ; some of them have interests in the Tauwhare and Maungakawa Reserves ; and I think some of them have still interests in the large Maungatautari Block, heard in 1884. Judge Puckey is sitting in Cambridge. Several of these Natives are at the Court. I have wired to Mr. Puckey to endeavour to ascertain, and let me know.—E. Hammond, Registrar, &c. The following morning (13th December, 1887) I received this reply from Judge Puckey : — Under-Secretary to the Native Department.—Owners of Maungatautari No. 1 and No. 2 have sufficient other land.—E. W. Puckey. Mr. Hutchison: That last telegram, the one from Judge Puckey, does not appear to me exhaustive enough; there might be fifty or sixty other owners. 153. Mr. Ormond.] Would it not be the business of the Trust Commissioner to ascertain whether Natives have sufficient lands or not ? Is not that the practice ?—-Yes. 154. Has he yet given his opinion ? —No. The deeds have not yet, I understand, been submitted to a Trust Commissioner. The following memorandum from the Eegistrar, Native Land Court, received by me since the above evidence was given, has been appended, by direction of the Chairman, Native Affairs Committee (T. W. Lewis) : — I beg to forward herewith the minute-book containing the evidence taken at the division of the Maungatautari Block, as requested by you in your telegram of tho 12th instant. Since writing my telegram of the same date I have endeavoured to ascertain what other lands the owners of the above-named block still retain. I have not been able to arrive at this result with the degree of certainty I could wish. A number of sections were awarded to several of them under " The Confiscated Land Act, 1867 " (vide Gazette No. 109, of the 28th October, 1879), but I find that most of them have been sold. All that remains unsold, as far as I can ascertain, in which the owners of Maungatautari Nos. 1 and 2 have interests, are as follow : Tarika te Hura, Lot 114, Tamahere, containing 39 acres ; Piripi Whunatangi, Lot 129, Tamahere, containing 18 acres ; Piripi Matewha, Lot 107, Tamahere, containing 19J acres ; Rihia te Kauae, Lot 106, Tauwhare, containing 17J acres ; Te Raihi, Lot 97, Tauwhare, containing 1 acre ; Te Raihi, Lot 56, Te Puna, containing 38 acres ; Hakiriwhi Purewa, Lot 90, Tauwhare, containing 1 acre ; Hakiriwhi Purewa, Lot 71, Tamahere, containing 630 acres. About the half of this block appears to have been sold, and the balance leased. Te Raihi and the survivor of Piripi te Matewha seem still to have interests in about three hundred acres of the Maungakawa Block, which appears not to have been sold. Many of the Ngatihaua reside on this land. I assume that the lands above mentioned have not been sold, as no deeds of transfer have been registered against the titles in the Registry Office. The under-mentioned owners of the Maungatautari Nos. 1 and 2 Blocks had interests awarded to them in the large Maungatautari Block, which passed the Court in 1884, and, as the orders for Crown grants have not yet issued, for want of survey, probably still retain them : Piripi Whunatangi, Matena Patoto, Tarika te Hura, Ihaia Tioriori: Maungatautari No. 3a, 15,000 acres (inalienable). Hate Tamihana, Harete Tamihana, Tana te Waharoa : Maungatautari No. 4a, 857 acres and 23 perches. Wi Piripi Matewha, Te Raihi: Maungatautari No. 4h, 2,922 acres. Eruera te Ngahuru : Maungatautari No. 4h, Section 4, 1,262 acres 3 roods 10 perches. Hote te Waharoa: Maungatautari No. 4h, Section 6, 724 acres. Tana te Waharoa, Harete Tamihana: Maungatautari No. 4h, Section 7, 420 acres. Harete Tamehana, Hote te Waharoa, Hakiriwhi te Purewa, Te Raihi: Maungatautari No. 4h, Section 8, 2,500 acres. Rihia te Kauae: Maungatautari No. 4g, Section 2, 605 acres 3 roods 22 perches. Hakiriwhi te Purewa: Maungatautari No. sa, 1,817 acres. Eruera te Ngahuru : Maungatautari No. 4n, Section 5, 590 acres. No transactions are registered against the under-mentioned blocks of land, in which the following persons, owners of Maungatautari Nos. 1 and 2, have interests : Tini Ponui, Pukehinau, 240 acres ; Harete Tamihana, Paeaturawaru No. 2, 24,229 acres ; Teni Ponui, Kiwitahi No. 3a, 1,668 acres ; Teni Ponui, Mangaotepua, 2,000 acres ; Hakiriwhi te Purewa, Urenui, 138 acres ; Tana te Waharoa, Tapui a, 105 acres; Piripi Motewha, Rihia te Kauae, Kohenu, 278 acres ; Raihi Tarika te Hura, Kiwitahi No. 2, 1,674 acres ; Tariki te Hura, Te Awapikopiko, 101 acres ; Harete Tamihana, To Miro, 1,742 acres ; Tana te Waharoa, Okania No. 3, 860 acres; Harete Tamehana, Tana te Waharoa, Hote te Waharoa, Raihi Toroatai, Mangawhero No. 2a, 307 acres. There were twenty owners of Maungatautari Nos. 1 and 2. The names of twelve of these appear in different divisions of the other Maungatautari Block. Three are known to be dead —namely, Waata Tahi, Tamati Turou, and Teni Ponui. The names of the remaining five—namely, Parakaia, Tuterangapouri, Rapata Mohi, Reone Tawari, and Nepia Marino —I do not see in any of the unsold lands. Auckland, 14th December, 1887. Edw. Hammond.

APPENDIX. Maungatautari Grant. To the Honourable the Legislative Assembly of Neiv Zealand in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition op the Eight Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Baronet, G.C.5.1., K.C.M.G., etc., etc., showeth as follows : — 1. In the year 1875 your petitioner purchased from the Hon. Every Maclean, sometime of Howick, near Auckland, a property known under the name of " Mungatautari," situated in the district of Waikato, and Province of Auckland, in New Zealand, which property extends to 5,500 acres or thereabouts. 2. In the negotiations for the purchase of the said property it was represented to your petitioner that His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand would be advised, in the case of the grant of the Maungatautari lands in question, to remove the restriction against alienation which it was desired to attach to the certificate of title of that block of land ; and it was on the faith of such representation that your petitioner was induced to purchase the said property.