Report on Petition of Hotereni Taipari and Another.

Petitioners allege that at the opening of the Thames Gold Fields they gave up an acre of land in the Township of Shortland, then the centre of the gold-mining district, to the Government as a site for Courthouses and other public buildings to be established there permanently. They further state that all the Courts have now been removed to another locality, and that they consider that the land given by them for a purpose which has ceased to be carried out should revert to them, and they ask accordingly for a return of the land.

I am directed to report as follows:—

That the land referred to by the petitioners was given for certain public purposes under a verbal arrangement between the Natives and Mr. Mackay, upon certain conditions, which conditions have partially fallen into abeyance. Under all the circumstances of the case, the Committee are of opinion that a fair solution of the difficulty would be to pay the Native owners the fair value of the land, exclusive of buildings and improvements, on condition of the Crown becoming legally entitled to the land with the tenements erected thereupon.

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