Report on Petition of Arihi te Nahu. (Presented in 1876.)

This is a petition presented last session, and referred back in consequence of the Native Affairs Committee of last year not having reported an opinion to the House.

The petitioner states that Mr. Henry Robert Russell is endeavouring to get possession of her land at Te Aute, in the Province of Hawke's Bay, alleging that he had purchased it from petitioner. The petitioner, however, alleges that she sold some land properly to Mr. Kinross, and that £1,700 which Mr. Russell gave her—or, rather, expended on costs of legal proceedings in Wellington—was not in payment for land, but to induce petitioner to stay with Mr. Russell, and not go to other Europeans.

I am directed to report as follows:—

That, in absence of evidence, and in view of recent investigations by the Supreme Court into the allegations of the petitioner, the Committee do not deem it desirable to report an opinion on the subject-matter of the petition.