No. 11.
Mr. Commissioner Johnson to the Chief Commissioner.

In reference to my report on the Native disputes in the Kaipara, dated 20th July last, I am happy to inform you that I have carried out my intention expressed therein, and that, at a general meeting of the contending parties, which was held at Mangawhare last week, a complete reconciliation between the hostile tribes was effected, and the feud which threatened to disturb the very important and necessary trade of these rivers may now, I think, be safely considered to be set at rest. As I endeavoured to explain in my former report, the claims of Mr. O'Brien to the lands of Wakahara has been the cause of bringing the tribes of Hokianga with those of the Kaipara to issue with the Natives of the Wairoa under Parore and Tirarau.

At this meeting the right of Taramoeroa over the Wakahara was fully admitted by Parore and Tirarau, and having been instructed to complete the purchase made by Mr. O'Brien of Wakahara, which now, through being the cause of contention among the Natives, had become a matter of necessity, I managed to extinguish the whole of the Native claims on the same for the sum of One hundred and seventy pounds (£170).

The money was, by Tirarau's consent, placed before Taramoeroa, who immediately handed it over to Tirarau and Parore. These two chiefs having seen this mark of respect publicly shown to them as the former conquerors of the land in question, felt their pride satisfied, and formally placed the whole amount again before Taramoeroa, by whom it was divided among the real owners of the soil.

On examining the ground contained in the claim of Mr. O'Brien as admitted by the Natives, and corresponding to the boundaries given in the original deed, I found the contents to be still less than I supposed at the date of my last report. The purchase comprises a frontage of a mile and a quarter to the Wairoa river, and bounded on either side by the creeks named Waikaka and Horaka, and runs back to a stream called Ranawe, a tributary of the Mangonui river, which is a large tributary stream of the Wairoa, and may be about four miles inland from the Wairoa river. These estimates of the extent would produce Three thousand acres (3,000 acres), and the payments proved to have been made by Mr. O'Brien of Two hundred and seventy-five pounds eighteen shillings, as reported by the Surveyor-General, added to the subsequent payment of One hundred and seventy pounds (£170) made by the Government, would amount to the sum of Four hundred and forty-five pounds eighteen shillings (£445 18s.) as the total cost of the block. I beg to transmit to you herewith the conveyance from the Natives to the Crown, and also a sketch of the purchase, and hope that the measures I have taken will meet with the approval of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.