Mr. Commissioner Johnson to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

I have the honor to enclose the Deeds of conveyance from the Aborigines to the Crown, of the three purchases named in the margin, which will be now finally completed, if His Excellency the officer administering the Government should be pleased to approve of the measures which I beg to propose for arranging the obstructions which still attend them. It will be observed that I have included in the receipts attached to the Deed of the Mangawhai, the additional sum of Sixty pounds (£60), the outlay of which I reported in my letter of the 3rd instant. It became necessary to settle this demand of a chief named Paratene Taupuhi, who disputed a part of the boundary, after all the details had been arranged by a Committee of the Chiefs, and had nearly prevailed on them to break off the negotiations; but on consideration of the said sum of Sixty pounds, he gave a range of valuable kauri timber, part of which was included in the original boundary agreed upon, and part in addition of about 1,000 acres in extent, the particular portion alluded to being shown in the enclosed sketch of these purchases.

I had the honor to bring under your notice in my preliminary report of the 31st December last, the claim of the Chief Tirarau, for the sum of One hundred pounds (£100), over this block, as I then stated, for a battle fought between the Ngapuhi and Ngatiwhatua tribes at Ikaranganui, but which claim could not be sustained, as that place was not included in the present purchase; and I now regret to state that Tirarau urges the same claim, on account of a canoe upsetting on the bar of the Mangawhai river, in which a relative of his was drowned; a chief named Hikaotote, a brother of Parore.

The Ngatiwhatua tribes, the owners of Mangawhai, remonstrated with apparent justice, that as this catastrophe was occasioned by the sea, they would not submit to their land being taxed with it, and absolutely refused to sell their land subject to the condition of this payment, and I hoped that Tirarau would have relinquished this unreasonable demand; but, on the contrary, on my arrival at Whangarei he came over from the Wairoa to see me, and urged his claim with great firmness, threatening to burn the house of any settler who might go to the land, unless his claim is satisfied. From the well known character of this chief, I have no doubt but that he would attempt to put his threat into execution; and I would therefore bring this claim to His Excellency's favourable consideration, more on the ground of its involving the question of the peace of the country, than because of its equity. Notwithstanding this exaction on the part of Tirarau, which proceeds more from a species of native pride than from avarice, he is a chief well disposed towards the Government and the Europeans generally, and incongruous however as these circumstance may appear, he has taken the lead of the party in favour of selling their lands to the Government, and has offered a valuable tract of country for sale, extending into the centre of one of the finest districts in the colony, and which will be the means, I hope, of its eventually being all purchased; his influence is paramount in whichever way it is directed in this part of the island, and his good offices being obtained in our favour will materially assist the more firm establishment of the authority of the Government in these newly acquired districts, where the natives are not in such an advanced state of civilization, or so attached to the Government, as in many other parts of the colony.

I would next proceed to report upon the settlement of the two purchases named from the rivers which intersect them, the Ruakaka and the Waipu, which comprise a portion of the enormous extent of country claimed by Mr. Busby, and inhabited by that party of the aborigines who opposed the Government in the war in the North. The attempts of Mr. Busby to frustrate my operations, together with the efforts of a society which exists among the natives, at the head of whom is the widow of John Heke, for the purpose of preventing the sale of land to the Europeans, caused me much trouble and anxiety, and, as it may not be uninteresting, I beg to enclose a copy of a circular letter of the said society at Kaikohe addressed to the chiefs of Whangarei, which, by the native mind is considered a very talented exhortation, and which met with great applause when read at the several meetings of the claimants; and, had I adopted the usual and safer method of assembling all the claimants before making my payment, the influence of the before mentioned agencies would have been apt to have terminated in preventing the sale of the land; but, bearing in mind the strong desire which His Excellency had expressed to have lands obtained for the settlers, I felt assured that the Government would approve of my obtaining this tract of country, even at some further outlay, than of my relinquishing the attempt from the apparent difficulties which appeared to surround it; and, actuated by this principle, I accepted the offers of the chiefs who first came forward to sell the Ruakaka, and paid to them the sum of One hundred pounds (£100) for their claims, reserving the sum of Two hundred and fifty pounds (£250) to satisfy the other parties with whom I had not yet come to terms. This decisive step showed the opposition that, when the real owners of land are disposed to sell to the Government, it is not to be intimidated by the clamour of disaffected factions exercising very little, if any, ownership at all over the lands sought to be purchased; and, with the assistance of the chiefs Mate and Parihoro, whom, in anticipation of these attempts to frustrate my object, I had prevailed on to accompany me to Whangarei from Mahurangi and Kaipara, I was enabled finally to overcome these obstacles and bring this purchase to a conclusion, on the conditions that a certain portion of the block reserved by the natives at the Ruakaka be purchased by the Government for the sum of Seventy pounds (£70), that portion being the private property of the chief Mate, who resides at Kaipara, and which he does not choose to leave for the use of the Ruakaka natives; and as, being a new purchase, I propose to make it the subject of a separate communication.

With reference to the Waipu I adopted a similar course, and haying first ascertained by a careful enquiry that the chief Te Wiremu and party were the principal owners, I paid to them an instalment of Two hundred pounds (£200), they on their part undertaking to satisfy the claims of the chiefs

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Tirarau and George King Tahua. Two other parties of claimants next appeared, and, their claims having been investigated and admitted to be just by the other parties, I paid to them a sum of One hundred pounds (£100), reserving the remaining Fifty pounds (£50) to meet any unforseen difficulties which might arise.

On the 17th instant a general meeting of all the claimants connected with this block was held at Otaika, in Whangarei, and, although the payments which I had made to the various claimants met the approval of this meeting, the chiefs Tirarau and George King Tahua refused the share allotted to them by Te Wiremu's party, and are not contented with the Fifty pounds (£50) at my disposal, but demand a further sum of Fifty pounds (£50), and also a chief named Pirihi urges a further sum of Ten pounds (£10) on account of relatives massacred on the ground. I do not think the nature of their claims, which are liens on the ground on account of their relations who have been killed on it by the Ngatiwhatua, entitle them to more than the Fifty pounds (£50) which I have appropriated to this purpose; but they are powerful chiefs and measure the value of their claim by their power to enforce its payment, and, looking to the future peace and prosperity of this part of the country, as well as the influence which these chiefs are able to exert over the future further acquisition of land, I do not believe that the expenditure of these sums of money will ultimately prove a loss to the Crown; and I have the most solemn assurances from the chiefs at the meeting at Otaika, that, if the demands are complied with, the undisputed possession of the land will be obtained for ever. Taking this tract of country or 22 miles frontage to the sea, and extending back from 6 to 10 miles inland, at a very moderate calculation to contain 100,000 acres, the amount already advanced, as per enclosed schedule, together with the sum required to meet the outstanding claims and new purchases, to satisfy the claimants, will not quite increase the average cost of these three blocks to the sum of Five pence (5d.) per acre.