(No. 2.)
Mr. Commissioner Cooper to his Honour the Supeeintendent, Taranaki.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, enclosing a copy of a notice which will appear in the next Provincial Gazette, stating that agreements for the purchase or leasing of Native reserves are illegal and void under the Act 15 and 16 Victoriæ, c. 72, and subject the parties making them to the penalties of the Native Land Purchase Ordinance, Session VIII., No. 19.

As such a notice will have the effect of calling in question the validity of several leases entered into by Natives with Europeans through the intervention of this office, and of occasioning uncertainty in the minds of the former in regard to acts of ownership in reserves made for them by the Crown, I beg leave respectfully to request that your Honour will be pleased to countermand the publication of the notice referred to, until I can receive instructions from His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government upon this subject.