I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th of May last, enclosing the copy of a report of a Special Committee of the Provincial Council of New Plymouth on the purchase of the Waiwhakaiho Block, and calling upon me to state my reasons for making the several reserves alluded to in the said report.

I shall not trespass upon your time by detailed replies to the statements contained in the report transmitted to me by you; but proceed at once to state the reasons which induced me to make the reserves. And first I beg leave to enclose the copy of a memorandum, drawn up by me and forwarded by you to the Superintendent of New Plymouth, in reply to a letter from hisHonour, dated 25th November, 1854, and which contains a detailed account of all these reserves. In making this memorandum it was not thought necessary to trouble his Honour, with the reasons why these reserves were made: these, however, in obedience to your instructions, I now proceed to explain.