T. PAKATA. 1

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Kaiapoi saw that Mr. Mantell was endeavouring to restrict the reserves for their kaingas merely to the particular places on which their houses and cultivations stood and their immediate vicinity, and sought to limit the area to 10 acres par individual owner per head, the Maoris were offended and distressed, and they most strongly objected and disputed with Mr. Mautell, and contended that the boundary of the reserved kaingas at Kaiapoi should extent from Uakahuri to Wakahume Stream, which is near the railway-station now called Flaxton. To this Mr. Mantell absolutely declined to agree. Then the Maoris refused to disclose their names —or a large majority of them refused to do so. The relations became so strained between them that a certain Native named To Oti te Han threatened to chop Mr. Mantell down with a tomahawk if he persisted ; so that for that reason matters were abandoned, and the boundaries for that land were not then fixed. Several years afterwards Mr. Buller—l do not know whether he was a brother of Dr. Buller or Sir Walter Buller —was eventually sent to complete the boundaries of the kaingas at Kaiapoi, but he also failed to satisfy the Maoris' demand re the boundary, and it was not finally laid down where the Maoris asked it should be. Mr. Buller then went on from there to Rapaki and Port Levy, and all those places. He went on, leaving the kainga dispute unsettled. When Mr. Mantell got to Taunmtu the people there also claimed a large quantity of land. Now, if the boundaries contended for by the Maori owners at Taumutu had bean agreed to by Mr. Mantell the reserve at Taumutu would probably have contained about two to three thousand acres or more; and 1 say that if those matters which were then contended for by the Natives had been agreed to and been satisfactorily settled and completed by Mr. Mantell in those days, we should not be compelled to come bsfore you now with the present claim contained in (his petition, because all the matters would have been satisfactorily settled, as I understand them, with the exception of the land on the inland or western side of Kemp's original boundary, which 1 have stated ran from Maungaatua to Mount Grey. Now, Mr. Mantell acted in exactly the same manner at Te Umukaha, Waitaki, Moeraki, Waikouaiti, and Purakaunui, and there was an exactly similar contention and dispute in regard to each of those places, and Mr. Mantell refused to agree to the demands of the Natives, no doubt perhaps because he thought that his original promises to the Maoris would be carried out by Her Majesty's Ministers of the Government of New Zealand. Mr. Mantell remained disputing with the Natives at Waikouaiti for two entire weeks. The principal chiefs signed the agreement or deed in the first place, but Haereroa, one of the principal chiefs, continued to dispute,, and his boundary for Waikouaiti was left unsettled right up to the time when Governor Grey came out as successor to Lieut.-Governor Eyre, and Haereroa made personal application to Governor Grey on his arrival at Otago that an increase of area should be made in the Waikouaiti Reserve —(hat it should be largely increased from what Mr. Mantell had fixed as the boundary. The boundary he stipulated for was from the mouth of the Waikouaiti River up stream as far as the Kirikiriwhakahoro Stream; from there to the Whaitiripaku Stream; from there to the sea-coast, and. back along the coast to the mouth of the Waikouaiti River, which was the startingpoint. Now, I estimate that if that boundary had been agreed upon as asked for, the Waikouaiti Reserve would contain somewhere about 6,000 acres or more. There were at that time a total including men, women, and children —of five hundred persons living at Waikouaiti. and 1 think, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, you will find a statement to that, effect contained in the evidence which was given by myself before Commissioners Smith and Nairn in the year 1880. 1 might say this: that similar contentions and disputes and claims were set up and continued at each meeting-place between Mr. Mantell and the Maoris as far south as Purakaunui—that is, the southern limit of Kemp's purchase, where it joined the northern limit of the Otago purchase. 1 shall presently speak of the occasion when the Government sent the surveyor down to survey Waikouaiti

Thuhsuay, 13th October, 1910. Mr. T. Parata further addressed the Committee. (No. 4.) Mr. Parata: My closing remarks last Tuesday were in. reference Jo the Native Reserve at Waikouaiti. 1 was referring to the time when the boundaries of that reserve were surveyed by Mr. Kettle. Trouble took place between the Maoris and the surveyor in connection with the boundaries. The Maoris decided to carry the boundaries from Kirikiriwhakahoro Creek to Whaitiripaku, which is now known as Evansdale. It will be remembered that the other day I described this boundary from the point of commencement back again to the starting-point. But Mr. Kettle laid down the survey boundary from Whakapakikutu to Pukemaeroero, and on from there to Princes Point, and along by the sea-coast to the mouth of the Waikouaiti River and back to Whakapakikutu, the starting-point. So it will be seen that this was not in accordance with the boundary for which the Maoris stipulated, and which had been consented to by Governor Grey on the occasion of his visit to Waikouaiti. Haereroa was informed that Governor Grey would presently reach Otago, that he was going there by way of the Chatham Islands, and that when lie arrived at Otago Haereroa and the other Maoris could submit their grievances to him. That was the reason of this dispute with Mr. Kettle, the surveyor. This survey took place subsequent to the arrival of Governor Grey at Otepoti— i.e., Dunedin. But Mr. Kettle, the surveyor, refused to carry the boundary as the Maoris desired it, from Kirikiriwhakahoro to Whaitiripaku. The area was the cause of the trouble, and this resulted in the Chief Haereroa seizing the surveyor's theodolite and throwing it on one side, other chiefs backing him up by flourishing tomahawks, Ac. I was then living at Waikouaiti. For interfering with Mr. Kettle, the surveyor, these old chiefs were summoned before the Magistrate's Court at Dunedin to answer this charge. The case