Enclosure.
Mr. Commissioner Searancke to H. S. Wardell, Eaq., R.M.

In answer to yours of this date, referring to the Ferry Reserve at the Waiohine River, as applied to the reserve for Ngatuere Tawhao, I beg to state that no arrangement was made as to what particular portion of the Ferry Reserve was to be given up to the Natives, but assuredly the part actually occupied by them. The then Crown Lands Commissioner verbally requested me to retain a portion, represented to me as a valuable site for a mill, in the lower part of the reserve down the river. To this I consented, provided that it did not interfere with the Natives, nor was a portion which they particularly wished to have for cultivation. Ngatuere's reserve has not been set out up to the present time, notwithstanding repeated applications on my part to the Provincial District Surveyor to set out the Ferry Reserve in accordance with the plans in the Provincial Survey Office. At the present time I am returning to the Wairarapa, unable to carry out my engagement to Ngatuere to set out the reserve (which I had engaged to do myself at once) from want of the necessary bearings and lengths of lines to enable me to do so.