13

H.—ll

The following is the account of the expenditure for the year which ended on the 31st March, 1893, in the adminstration of the West Coast Settlement Eeserves: — Receipts. £ s. d. Payments. £ s. d. Commission, &c. .. .. .. 838 2 9 Reserves Agent's salary and travelling-ex-Deposits of lessees on account of expenses 862 12 6 penses .. .. .. .. 419 19 7 Refunds .. .. .. .. 32 14 0 Clerical assistance .. .. .. 319 is 3 Balance, being excess of expenditure .. 88 7 5 Contingencies, advertisements, reporting, translating, &c. .. .. .. 67 5 5 By allowance to, and travelling-expenses for, three agents, two at £2 a week and one at £1 Is. a day, also for travellingexpenses of Public Trustee .. .. 644 611 Legal expenses .. .. .. 302 15 0 Valuation .. .. .. .. 67 14 6 Total .. .. .. £1,821 16 8 Total .. .. .. £1,821 16 8 The lessees of reserves holding under confirmed leases which have expired have all notified their desire to obtain new leases, and notifications have been received from several of the lessees holding under confirmed leases which have yet to expire, as well as from a large number of the lessees holding under leases originally granted by the Public Trustee. A statement is in preparation which will show the notifications which have been received, and how they have been dealt with. The rental of the land which is comprised in the old leases, and of which application is made for new leases, is computed at 5 per cent, on the value of the land without the improvements, and the necessary valuation is made by me in such a manner as, in the absence of regulations by the Governor, I may direct or think fit, provided that the value of the land without the improvements may not be less than the value as ascertained for the assessment for the purposes of " The Land and Income Assessment Act, 1891." In -selecting a person competent to properly inspect the properties, and to furnish me with accurate reports upon them, my desire was to secure one who, without property in, and not a resident of, the district of the reserves, should combine with experience acquired by a long residence in the colony a knowledge as well of business generally as of the character and value of the land comprised in the reserves, and on whom I could depend for information necessary to a reliable estimate of value ; and I found these qualifications in Mr. Morton Jones, who is carrying out the work with an economy of importance to the lessees, and with general satisfaction both to them and the Native owners. In his inspection of the properties which he is required to value, Mr. Jones is accompanied by Mr. George Broughton (Ngarangi Katitia), whose employment in this work has inspired the Natives with confidence, and precluded the suspicion with which they would certainly have regarded a valuation made by any one not of their own race or choice. When, in the case of each application to which I decide that effect ought to be given, the time for the meeting arrives to fix, in accordance with the Act, the rent for the first twenty-one years of the new lease, the lessee and the Native owners generally agree, and thus confirm the valuation as satisfactory. Where the meetings do not result in an agreement, and I fix the rent at 5 per cent, on the estimated value, which is in excess of the land-tax value, the case will rarely happen, I anticipate, if it should happen at all, in which a lessee will refuse the new lease. In the rent meetings which may take place between the lessees of reserves in the Waitara district, a section of the Native owners known as the Waihi Natives may refuse to take part, not on the ground that the values are incorrect or unsatisfactory, or that a more profitable administration can be urged than that which is authorised by the Act of 1892, but because they contend that the lands should not be included in the confiscated territory, and that the Native owners themselves should be allowed to deal with them. Dismissing the legal question as already settled—that the lands are subject to the Act—my own short experience of the result of allowing the Natives to deal wdth their own lands prompts me to remark that as a general rule the Natives no sooner obtain the right to alienate their lands than they exercise it, and squander the capital. In this way many Natives would be in danger of eventually losing their right to occupy any land in this their own country, and might thus soon become dependent upon charitable aid, and create the last and worst of the Native difficulties. In exercising even the restricted right of leasing, the Natives rarely make arrangements by which their interests do not suffer. Influenced by these considerations, lam unable to avoid the conclusion that the interests of both races require that the lands which may be reserved for the benefit of the Natives should be inalienable except for the purpose of being leased to produce an income to them, and to meet the demands of settlement, and that this benefit should be secured to the Natives by an administration through the agency of a Government department, compensated by a commission on the income of the lands. The Waihi Natives would have succeeded, but for the legislation of last session, in alienating a large portion in which they are interested of a valuable reserve; and, though it could not have been predicted that the money which they might have received as the capital value of their land would in that particular case have been used improvidently or even unprofitably, it would have been but reasonable to fear that alienation would have resulted, as it results in the generality of cases, in the loss or waste of the capital. On the sth April last fifty-four lots, comprising nearly 13,000 acres, were offered of the unleased reserves, consisting almost entirely of land which, unoccupied and covered with heavy bush, had been unprofitable to the Native owners, and an impediment to the progress of the district. These lands were offered, of course, under the provisions of the Act of 1892, and, though there is no question that the demand is more than commonly eager for good land suitable for small farms, the