Moroa and Tauherenikau.

The accumulation of "koha" on this purchase amounted, according to returns, on 30th September, 1873, to £1,027 8s. 1½d.; the charges against the Natives to £366 17s. In November, 1870, Mr. Kemp paid £430 to the sellers, but did not make any specific deduction for the above charges. Manihera and the other Natives interested objected to the set-off of £366 17s. on the following ground: (1) That they had never received the money; (2) that the accounts should have been furnished to them at the time, or, certainly, at last payment; and (3) that the charge for mills, of which this was one, had been promised to be wiped off in the account against them. To the first of these I was able to show that £150 of the money had been asked for in writing by Manihera, and that the sum of £366 17s. had remained constantly in the accounts, while other charges had been wiped out. In reference to the second reason, I was able to offer no sufficient excuse. In reference to the third, I showed that the original cost of mill had been wiped out of the account, but that the charge of £366 17s. was for repairs after the earthquakes of 1855, and was not affected by the circumstances that caused the remission of the charge for the erection. After a long discussion, I was enabled to maintain this charge as a set-off.

In the returns of land sold, as received from Commissioner of Crown Lands previous to leaving Wellington, no account has been taken of about 14,000 acres of sold land, supposed to be within this block, and to lie between the Waiohine and the Waingawa Rivers. Before this matter could be settled it was necessary to establish, on the ground, the exact position of the boundary of the Moroa purchase, which had never been done by survey. On the 9th of December, in company with Mr. T. E. Young, I went over this boundary, tracing it out on the plan according to the Native names in the deed of cession. We obtained, the services of Hori Taha—a Native well acquainted with the locality and the old names—to point out the positions, while Matiha Mokai and Roimata went to check Hori Taha's accuracy. The tracing attached, marked A, shows, in red, the boundary thus defined. By this it appeared that 14,602 acres had been sold within the limit, and that a further sum of £348 2s., (net 5-per-cehts) was due upon it. I obtained this money, and paid it to the Moroa Natives on the 16th instant.

In 1853 the chiefs Manihera te Rangitakaiwaho and Wi Kingi Tutepakehirangi, principal owners of the Moroa District, made a free gift of a block of land to Chief Commissioner McLean, "in consequence of the satisfaction they felt at the manner in which Mr. McLean had conducted land purchases in the vicinity, and the high relative price he had paid to all of them for the adjacent lands." The means of surveying this piece of land were not at the time at command, and, for want of an accurate knowledge of its figure and area, the execution of a deed of gift was deferred until the matter was lost sight of. Nearly all the contiguous land became Crown property by purchase, and this piece, being on either side of the main road from Tauherenikau Bridge to Greytown, was included in a, sectional survey arid granted by the Crown. Although given, the land was yet to yield "5-per-cents." Seeing that, in taking receipts for the 5-per-cents, an opportunity presented itself of obtaining a formal ratification of the free gift, and the Natives being well inclined, I drew up, in conjunction with Mr. E. S. Maunsell, licensed interpreter of Greytown, the attached document. (B), by which the two chiefs above mentioned ratify their gift, and fifteen others, principal people of the district, confirm it. The marginal plan attached shows the boundaries-as given by Manihera to me. The area comprised is 5,000 acres. The total accumulation of 5-per-cents on the Moroa and Tauherenikau Blocks was thus £1,375 10s. 1½d.; the advances made were £796 17s.; leaving a balance of £578 13s. 1½d. due to the Natives, which I paid them.