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acquired, and I propose to do this by a simple narrative of facts, with a view to establish beyond dispute that the Natives concerned therein are entitled to be liberally dealt with for the non-fulfil-ment of the conditions of sale, and the promises held out to induce them to part with their lands for a small cash payment. In pursuance with the intention, I propose to deal with these purchases in chronological order, and will commence with Kemp's purchase, it being first in point of time. Kemp's Purchase. Kemp's or the Ngaitahu Purchase, as it is also known by, was effected close upon forty years ago. The deed was executed at Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, on the 12th June, 1848, and comprises all that tract of country bounded towards the north by a line drawn from Kaiapoi on the east to Cape Foulwind on the west; on the east and west by the ocean ; and on the south by a line drawn from the Nuggets, beyond the Molyneux Eiver, on the East to Milford Haven on the West Coast. The aggregate area of the block included within the above-named boundaries exceeds 20,000,000 acres. The price paid was £2,000, and land to the extent of 6,359 acres was set apart as reserves for the Natives shortly after the sale. After describing the boundaries, the deed of sale contains the following conditions (according to the English version) as regards the reservations to be made for the Natives: viz., " Our places of residence and our cultivations are to be reserved for us and our children after us, and it shall be for the Governor hereafter to set apart an additional portion for us when the land is surveyed by the surveyors." The Natives contend, and this view was upheld in the Native Land Court in 1868, that the phrase "mahinga kai," used in the Maori copy of the deed, has a much wider interpretation than the translation into English gives it. It was held in the Court that this phrase would include, besides cultivations, pipi-grounds, eel-weirs, and fisheries, excluding merely hunting-grounds and similar things, which were never made property in the sense of appropriation by labour. The Maori view of the phrase is that it includes, besides their cultivations, the right of fishing, catching birds and rats, procuring berries and fern-root over any portion of the lands within the block. Under this interpretation they would be entitled to roam at will over the whole country—a state of affairs that could not have been contemplated. In 1844, at the time the New Zealand Company's purchases were under consideration, it was resolved that the reservations as regards the pas and cultivations should be understood to mean as follows : That the pa should be considered to be the ground that is fenced around the Native houses, including the ground in cultivation or occupation around the adjoining houses without the fence, and that the nature and meaning of the word " cultivations " were to be understood to apply to those tracts of country which were in use by the Natives for vegetable productions, or which have been so used by them since the establishment of the colony. It would seem by a despatch dated the 25th March, 1848, from Governor Grey to Earl Grey, having reference to a visit of the former to the Middle Island, and also to the tenor of the directions given to Lieut.-Governor Eyre respecting the purchase of the territory comprised within the Ngaitahu Block, that the settlement of the Native claims was intended to be made on the following terms —viz., That ample reserves for the present and reasonable future wants should be set apart for the claimants and their descendants, and registered as reserves for that purpose ; and, after the boundaries of the reserves had been marked out, then the right of the Natives to the whole of the remainder of the block should be purchased. Similar instructions were given to Mr. Kemp, the officer who was charged with the duty of acquiring the land, as will be seen by the following extract from the letter of instructions to him dated the 25th April, 1848 : " The object of your mission is the extinguishment of any title which may, upon inquiry, be found to be vested in the Natives to the tract of country lying between the district purchased from the Ngaitahu Tribe and that purchased by the New Zealand Company at Otago. In entering upon the arrangements necessary to effect this object, it will be your duty to reserve to the Natives ample portions of land for their present and prospective wants; and then, after the boundaries of these reserves have been marked, to purchase from the Natives their right to the whole of the remainder of their claims to land in the Middle Island." A perusal of the correspondence on the subject will show that the details of the purchase were carried out at variance with the original intentions, and that, instead of the reserves for the Natives being marked off as was contemplated, and then the remainder of the district purchased, the money was paid in the first place, and the reserves left to be determined at a future time; —a plan which placed the Natives entirely in the hands of the Government as to the quantity of land to be set apart; —a position that was taken advantage of to circumscribe the area of land allotted to them to the narrowest limits, as will be seen from extracts taken from the evidence given by the Hon. Mr. Mantell before the Native Land Court in April and May, 1868, at the investigation of the ownership of the Native reserves set apart in Kemp's Purchase. Before quoting the extracts alluded to, it is necessary to premise that, in consequence of Mr. Kemp not defining the reserves to be set apart for the Natives, the Government were necessitated to depute Mr. Mantell to take up Mr. Kemp's unexecuted work. Mr. Mantell, after explaining his action generally to the Court in regard to the setting-apart of reserves for the Natives in the Ngaitahu Block, stated, inter alia, " In marking out these reserves I was obliged, in some cases, to give way in order to effect an arrangement. I yielded to the Natives as to locality, but brought them down as to the quantity of land the reserves should contain. My impression is that the Government never intended to complete the reserves in accordance with the clause in Mr. Kemp's deed. The price paid to the Natives was not to be taken as the consideration for the land; they were to consider the value of the reserves given to them, and the promise that the Government would erect schools and hospitals for the sick, and appoint officers to look after their interests. Although strenuous exertions have been made, these promises have not been carried out by preceding Governments. These promises were not in the deed I believed at the time, and reported to that effect, that the reserves were sufficient for the pregent and future wants of the Natives, but now