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1888. NEW ZEALAND.

NATIVE LAND CLAIMS IN MARLBOROUGH (REPORT ON), BY MR. ALEXANDER MACKAY.

Return to an Order of the House of Representatives, dated 2nd December, 1887. Ordered, " That there be laid before this House a copy of Mr. Alexander Mackay's report on the claims of the Ngatikuia and Rangitane Natives to land in the Marlborough District."—(Me. Parata.)

Mr. Alex. Mackay to the Hon. the Native Minister, Sib,— Temuka, 9th May, 1887. I have the honour to transmit herewith my report on an inquiry held at the Wairau in May of last year relative to the necessity of making further provision in land to meet the requirements of the Natives belonging to that district and the Pelorus, and beg respectfully to request that the same may be laid before His Excellency the Governor, to whom it is addressed. I have, &c, The Hon. the Native Minister, Wellington. A. Mackay,

May it please youb Excellency,— In pursuance of the instructions contained in the Commission issued to rne by your Excellency, dated the 12th day of May, 1886, I convened a meeting of the Natives residing in the Wairau and Pelorus on the 19th of the same month at the Native pa, Wairau, for the following purposes : — 1. To inquire into all cases of Natives alleged to be unprovided with land; 2. To inquire into cases where it is asserted that the lauds hitherto set apart are inadequate for the maintenance and supjsort of the Natives on whose behalf such provision was made ; 3. To inquire into the cases of all half-castes in the Middle Island whose names are not included in any Acts of the Legislature who may still be unprovided with land; 4. To ascertain and furnish the names, addresses, and sex of all such persons, and recommend in what quantities and in what localities land should be set apart and awarded to each for cultivation and settlement purposes. Before detailing the result of my inquiry it is advisable that a brief statement be made of the early circumstances in connection with the settmg-apart of reserves for the persons (or their predecessors) on whose behalf the inquiry was held. Under the terms of a deed of sale known as " the Waipounamu purchase," executed at Wellington on the 10th August, 1853, between the Ngatitoa Tribe and the Government, it was agreed, inter alia, that certain reservations of land should be made for the resident Natives, the extent and position thereof to be determined by the Governor. In fulfilment of this condition, 770 acres were reserved at the Wairau for cultivation purposes and 200 acres at White's Bay for a fishing-station; and in the Pelorus 998 acres were set apart, but, as 238 acres of this quantity were allotted to certain persons as a special award, this area cannot be reckoned as a portion of the general estate. The actual quantity available for this purpose would therefore be 760 acres, and the gross total in both places w7ould be 1,530 acres, exclusive of the 200 acres at White's Bay, which, being of inferior quality and unfit for cultivation, is not included. The Native population in 1856, at the time the reserves were made, numbered 219, of whom 120 resided in the Wairau and 99 in the Pelorus. The acreage set apart for Native purposes in both districts, averaged over the whole number, amounts to seven acres per individual, and had the Natives not supplemented the quantity by purchasing Crown land they would have been very badly off. They did not feel so much the want of an increased area in the early days while the country was only sparsely populated by the Europeans; but, as they are now hemmed in on all sides, and I—G-. IA.