Cultivations at Port Nicholson, exclusive of the above.

Districts.	Cultivations: Quantities in Acres.												Number of Native Reserves.	Acres available on Native Reserves.
		A.	R.	P.	A.	R.	P.	A.	R.	P.	A.	R.			P.
Ohariu	48	2	27	125	2	21	59	2	0	233	3	8	7	300
Makara	48	2	27	125	2	21	59	2	0	233	3	8	4	150
Block at Raewaira.													5	300
													16	750
Reserves													27	780
													43	1,530

One of the greatest difficulties arises from the imperfect mode of Native cultivation: not understanding a succession of crops, they wear out their land in three or four years, and sometimes less, and are then obliged to seek for and clear land elsewhere: hence many of their cultivations are now worn out and unfit for their uses, but they are unwilling to relinquish them without having others; and I should fear the same results for a few years, unless lands more than sufficient for their present use were procured. Land may hereafter, within a short period, increase in value in this neighbourhood, but it will gradually fall below its present price. It will be found that, under the protective influence of peace, the extension of civilization and agricultural knowledge, the gradual development of their own power, and the resources of the land, the Natives will be enabled in most, nay, they are already able in some cases, to undersell the European agriculturist. The Maoris will prefer working, as an union, for their own tribe, for lower wages, and in adaptation of their notions, rather than for the English farmer, whose hire of English labour being exorbitantly high, he will be unable as an agriculturist to compete with his Native neighbour. The cultivators are mostly on settlers' sections, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Port. Nicholson, in patches scattered throughout. One block or patch consists of portions on two sections (Nos. 28 and 29) in the Karori District, one in the Ohiro (No. 10), one in the Upper Kaiwharawhara (No. 1), and a small portion of the Town Belt, comprising in all 101 acres. In the Karori District, where there is no Native reserve, there are also thirty-one acres on settlers' sections; and in the adjoining district, Ohiro, there are four reserves, containing thirty acres of available land, and 158 acres on settlers' lands, of which 109 acres are in one block. There is another block of 100 acres, with slight intervals cultivated by the Pipitea, Ngauranga, and Waiwhetu Natives, also on settlers' sections in the Harbour District.

The Natives almost invariably choose land on hilly situations having an eastern aspect: thus in many cases sections would not be available to them under their present system of cultivation, and therefore, where a western aspect predominates, more than half the section would be valueless. It must be borne in mind that all the present cultivations are composed of good land, suitable, from aspect, &c., for their wants, and chosen on that account.

page 12

The reserves, consisting of 3,800 acres; and a block of 500 acres, have an average proportion of 1,530 acres of cultivable land, according to the Government Surveyor's report. It has been said that the surveyor appointed by the Company reported that about 1,800 might be so included. Assuming the higher number, this quantity is insufficient for the wants of those in the immediate neighbourhood of Wellington (exclusive of Tiakiwai), amounting to 633 inhabitants, added to those scattered in smaller settlements on the shore, at Ohiro, Waiariki, Oteranga, Ohariu, &c.; many of these reserves are at too great a distance.

Supposing that even half of each section on an average were good land, but that it is hilly, having equal portions of aspect west and east, it follows that one-fourth only will be considered valuable by the Native until he learns a better mode of cultivation, to be acquired in time. In many cases a section of a hundred acres of good land will only yield the Native fifty available for his cultivation. Generally speaking, at the very least, to compensate for the 580 acres now under cultivation by the Natives on settlers' sections, twelve sections of a hundred acres would be required in exchange. The Natives occupying the eastern would not prevent the European from tilling the western faces of the hills. But a difficulty again arises in the separation of the section, as to the irregular outline of the boundary, and which is at present so strongly illustrated. Take the cultivations in the Karori and Ohiro districts, and they will be found, nearly without exception, with an eastern aspect; also at Kaiwhara; the same again towards Pitone, where they occupy the flat land on the tops of the hills; the absence of cultivations on the Lowry Bay side of the bay, extending to the hills on the left bank of the River Hutt, and which have a westerly aspect.

There is another difficulty: to obtain blocks of land in suitable situations within a reasonable distance of the town. The Natives naturally complain that, if they give up their cultivations in the immediate vicinity of the town for others situated at a greater distance, the expense of time and labour to reach the port with their produce will be greater. At a cursory glance at the map it will be seen that the land within a reasonable distance of the town is altogether in the hands of Europeans, rendering it nearly impossible to put the Natives in possession of land without a purchase from the white people near the town or public roads, or on the very few Native reserves which may be equally well situated.

Most sections allotted to Europeans contain from 110 to 120 acres each, even in some cases 130, though the land order is only for 100, and is thus accounted for in the Crown grant to the Company; and in few cases do the Native cultivations exceed on any one section twenty acres: the general average may be five. The difficulty might to a certain extent be got rid of by confining the settler to his 100-acre section and giving the Natives the excess above it; but such an award would hardly be equitable to the European cultivator, to take advantage of the liberality of the New Zealand Company. As the clearings of the Natives, from their irregular form, would render the farm of less value to the English farmer, he would have more difficulty in tillage and an increased expense in fencing the boundary. Yet the absentee, provided he could obtain his 100 acres in one block, could not complain of being confined to his just claim of purchase, particularly when not removed from the locality of his choice.

Absenteeism is a perplexity. In many cases there is no ostensible agent. The absent owner may repudiate the sale if the agent is not properly accredited with full powers of attorney to sell. In general the only power granted is to lease, in many cases for a peppercorn rent, at a definite period a small pecuniary rent, which is gradually increased. If land becomes of increased value, from local causes or arrangements by the Home Government, those whose agents have sold may repudiate the sale unless an additional sum is paid. And during the lapse of time and different references the land may be cleared for the settler, he may be willing to pay an equitable sum for the portion cleared, but the Native will be driven to seek land elsewhere, and increasing that feeling of distrust which at the present moment is on the decrease generally.

In some cases property is held in common between individuals of different pas at distances from each other. For instance, the Natives at Pipitea have cultivations on the Hutt, near the bridge, in partnership with some of the Waiwhetu Natives, and also near Te Aro, with some of that portion of the tribe at Te Aro.

Some portions of the Town Belt, in patches amounting in all to about sixty-two acres, are under cultivation by Natives of the Pipitea, Kumutoto, and Te Aro Pas, in which they have been guaranteed by Captain Fitzroy's arrangement; and, with the great difficulty to obtain land in good situations, I would respectfully suggest that more of the Town Belt should be so relinquished to them, to an amount not exceeding (exclusive of that before guaranteed) 150 acres, furnishing them with plans to check future encroachments. They will also receive copies of plans of their town reserves whereon they have cultivations, and which might also be guaranteed to them as cultivations, in conjunction with these portions of the Town Belt; the originals of these plans, certified to by an officer of the Survey Department, with the signatures of the accepting parties and Government officers or others as witnesses, to be retained in the Survey Office; and I propose the same attention to plans, and duplicates of the same, with respect to the country cultivations of the Port Nicholson Natives, and to recommend the same in all future purchases from the Natives.

In recommending a portion of the Town Belt (in the whole said to contain 800 acres, but which, on measurement, I believe will contain upwards of 1,000 acres) to be given to the Natives in exchange for other lands required for the settlers, which have been purchased by them from the New Zealand Company, I merely recommend an extension of the occupancy which they hold under Captain Fitzroy's arrangement of the 29th January, 1844, and in the belief that the Town Belt is to be considered as waste land and belonging to the Crown. In this I have been guided by the grant to the New Zealand Company of the Port Nicholson district and the description thereto, in which no allusion is made to the Town Belt or unsurveyed lands within the limits of that grant. The area is 209,372 acres within the boundaries, part of which only, namely, 71,900 acres, are surveyed by and granted to the Company, accepted by that body, and acknowledged hitherto as part of 1,300,000 acres granted by Lord Stanley in liquidation of expenditure, &c.

An objection is raised by the principal agent of the company, not to the quantity granted within page 13the boundaries of the Port Nicholson District, but as to its distribution in favour of certain bodies of Natives on settlers' sections and the Town Belt; the 71,900 acres are defined, viz., 70,800 acres of country sections of 100 acres each, and 1,100 town sections of one acre each, and in which the Town Belt is not included. I conceive the balance, viz., 137,472, includes the Town Belt and other unsurveyed lands as waste and pertaining to the Crown; more particularly as Lord Stanley, in a letter dated November, 1842 (vide Report of the Committee, 1844), declined to submit for confirmation the Ordinance to provide for the Establishment and Regulation of Municipal Corporations, objecting to certain clauses—amongst others, to the 7th, which excepts all " Crown reserves, Native reserves, and allotments sold or intended to be sold to private persons, and marked accordingly," from the land to be vested in the Municipal Corporation, which extends to a diameter of fourteen or radius of seven miles, and therefore might include an area of 154 square miles nearly.

The vested interest of a Municipal Corporation in all portions of the above 137,472 acres, included within a radius of seven miles of the Town of Wellington, would include the Town Belt; and this, I conceive, is not intended by Her Majesty's Government. I therefore recommend the appliance of part of the Town Belt, as waste land, to a purpose that may remove a part of the difficulties attendant on the settlement of Port Nicholson, now for so many years a desideratum.

Many of the settlers' sections that have been cultivated by the Natives have been cleared to a valuable extent. I would suggest that an average value per acre should be paid by the settler or Company on being put in possession by Government of these portions.