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An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

Report on the Payment of the Auckland Ten-per-Cents. Wellington, 29th May, 1874

Report on the Payment of the Auckland Ten-per-Cents. Wellington, 29th May, 1874.

Sir,—

Pursuant to instructions received from the Hon. the Native Minister, I proceeded to Auckland on the 25th of March last for the purpose of paying the Native sellers of the blocks mentioned page 9below the sums that had accrued to them as 10-per-cents of the proceeds of land sales, in accordance with the terms of the respective deeds of cession.

The sums that had thus accrued up to the 1st April, 1874, were: Upon Remuera, £1,348 9s. 10d; Paioterangi, £609 14s. 6d.; Hikurangi, £1,653 7s. 2d.; Puatahinga, £432 10s.; Ruakaka, £473 16s. 10d; Mangawhai, £419 13s. 2d.; Hunua, £889 18s. 7d.: total, £5,827 10s. 1d.

There was a similar contract entered, into with the sellers of the Piako Block, in the Thames District, but no land had been sold there.

The contract under which the liability for payment of 10-per-cents occurred was contained in the following words: "It is further agreed by the Queen of England, on her part, that there shall be paid for the following purposes—that is to say, for the founding of schools in which persons of our race may be taught, for the construction of hospitals in which persons of our own race may be tended, for the payment of medical attendance for us, for annuities for our chiefs, or for other purposes of a like nature in which the Natives of this country have an interest—10 per cent., or ten pounds out of every hundred pounds, out of moneys from time to time received for land when it is resold."

The only payments that had ever been made out of the Ten-per-cent. Fund (which had been kept separate at the Treasury) were the following: 1862.—Construction of Orakei Bridge, £538 17s. 5d. and £586 10s; unaccounted for, £20: total, £1,145 7s. 5d. The Orakei Bridge was built in 1862, to connect the peninsula of that name with Remuera, a suburb of Auckland. The largest Native settlement in the district was at Orakei, and the sellers of Remuera consented that a large portion of the cost of the bridge should be charged against the 10-per-cents. Unfortunately, the records of the transaction and all the vouchers for the disbursements save one were lost at the sinking of the "White Swan" steamer.