No. 45.
Mr. Commissioner Johnson to the Chief Commissioner.

With reference to your letter of the 25th instant, on the, subject of the Kaiawa Block at Parua, intimating that an additional amount of Fifty pounds had been granted for the same, also page 81directing me to confer with Tirarau and have a conveyance of the land made without further delay, I have the honor to inform you that Maunsell, Tirarau's nephew, was the bearer of this letter, demanding at the same time the £200, the price of the land.

I was sorry that I felt it my duty not to comply with his request, Tirarau having passed over to the Wairoa, Maunsell being in no way connected with the land, and none of the other parties concerned being, present to execute the deed. I do not see how I could have acted otherwise under the circumstances of the case which I would lay before you with a view of obtaining your further instructions at your earliest convenience.

This block is a peninsula in Parua Bay, adjoining the Manaia Block and the Native lands, and belongs to Pohe's tribe, and is also partly claimed by an old Chief named Horuona who resides near it. On the extreme point of the peninsula is an old pa which was taken by the Ngatiruanui in former times, on which occasion some ancestors of Tahua and Tirarau were killed. On this account George King Tahua setup a claim to the point, about 200 acres in extent; and in order to make his claim sufficiently large for the Government to purchase the land, obtained from the other claimants an extension of the boundaries to 1,372 acres, upon the condition that the real owners were to receive a portion of the payment, which I promised them should be faithfully carried out. Tahua was then authorized by the other claimants to negotiate the sale. These other claimants do not belong to the tribes of Tirarau and Hori King Tahua; and they have warned me that, if these conditions are not complied with, they will resist the occupation of the land although it should be sold by Tahua; and the only way I have of ensuring the fulfilment of the conditions on which the land was given up is, by taking care that the signatures of the other claimants are obtained to the deed before paying the money, by which means Tahua will be compelled to share the payment with them, or else they will not sign the deed; and I do not feel justified in paying the money over to Tahua or Tirarau alone, and leaving them to settle this question, without your special instructions to that effect.

I was not aware, until the receipt of your letter, that Tirarau had been moving in the matter, as I had frequent interviews with Tahua on the subject, who was prepared to accede to my wishes; and his writing to you for £300 was more a matter of form than anything else, he having requested me not to report, that the negotiation for £150 had failed, as he did not expect to get more; but Tirarau, having made up his mind to demand £200, changed the state of affairs, and it was necessary to give that sum, or he would not have permitted the land to be sold for less.