(Enclosure 1 in No. 2.)
Judge Rogan to the Chief Judge, Native Land Court.

With reference to your letters, dated 9last and 8th June, numbered respectively in the margin, requesting me to furnish you with a report on several points in connection with the page 51present working of the Native Lands Act, I beg to express my regret that circumstances have prevented me from giving the subject of your letters the attention I should have wished at the proper time; yet I hope the observations submitted to you will be in time to accompany reports from other officers, if they should be of sufficient interest to be placed before the Assembly. Before giving any distinct reply to the points alluded to in your first letter, I propose to make a few general remarks, being the result of events indelibly impressed upon my mind, in relation to the purchase of land from the New Zealanders, about the period when the New Zealand Company's settlers first came into the country.

You are aware that I held an appointment under the Plymouth Company of New Zealand as assistant surveyor in the year 1841, when, after the Township of Taranaki had been laid out in allotments, my duty required me to remove to suburban and rural districts to divide the land into fifty-acre sections. It will at once be perceived that, to carry on a survey in a district where, at that time, all the inhabitants were Natives, it was of the utmost importance to me, both in regard to my public and private capacity, to be on good terms with the people, and to accomplish this I very soon discovered that, where none could speak English, a knowledge of the Maori language in part was most essential to the progress and success of my operations. Accordingly, I soon made myself sufficiently acquainted with the Maori, tongue to conduct an ordinary conversation. From these circumstances I was enabled to ascertain the opinions of the Taranaki people regarding the purchase of that district, which was arranged with a few chiefs only. The all-absorbing theme of interest with the Natives, and the mode in which that district was paid for by the officers of the New Zealand Company, was openly ridiculed by such men as Katatore, for, to do justice to some of the leading Natives of that period, I must say that, from the very first settling of that district by Europeans, they (the chiefs) predicted that a time would certainly come when the real owners of the soil would return from north and south to reoccupy Taranaki. The fear of Te Pakaru and his tribe coming from Kawhia and occupying Taranaki or the north bank of Waitara, caused the resident Natives to acquiesce in the survey, and to live on general good terms with their neighbours; and settlement progressed favourably, as a rule, until the Wairau massacre, when the Natives, who were continually coming from the North, emancipated from slavery, and from the South, made a formal stand against a large party of the New Zealand Company's workmen, who were forming a road on the banks of the Waitara, and compelled the labourers to withdraw to New Plymouth. Other demonstrations of rapacity were made with a view of re-establishing their mana; such, for instance, as at Mr. Cooke's farm at Te Hua, where an old savage mustered a large force, felled the timber, and cultivated the soil for years afterwards. This was the time when the Natives said "the Jews were returning to Jerusalem." At any rate the Maoris came back in great numbers, and took actual possession, I may say, of the entire district, thereby producing the melancholy state of affairs in connection with the land question in Taranaki. The settlers became exasperated and desponding, and their industry entirely paralysed. Then came Mr. Commissioner Spain, who, for some reason, awarded 60,000 acres to the Company within the lines first cut by the surveyors of the Company. Subsequently, in 1844, the late Governor Fitzroy visited New Plymouth, and gave back the entire district to the Maoris, which at once and for ever annulled the arrangements by which the settlement was originally founded.

I have no desire to disparage when I point to the error of the purchase of the Company, which very probably was conducted without a knowledge of the Natives, and their custom or principle of dealing with land at the time. Something, no doubt, might be said for the social state of the Maoris, which at the time gave the warrior chief immense power that has now almost faded away. The Taranaki Natives, however, acknowledged no superiors, they were all chiefs—or rather slaves—and the proverb of the Poverty Bay Natives was peculiarly applicable to them, "Turanga tangata rite," ("Equality and fraternity") of the Maori in Taranaki. It can easily be imagined how exultingly the Natives triumphed over this easily-achieved victory, and the amount of patience, required by the Europeans to submit to the tawai of the Maori, when, the settlers were compelled to abandon their farms to the enjoyment of the Ngatiawa.

A new and radically different system of purchasing land was subsequently adopted by the Government of the day, and Mr. Commissioner McLean succeeded in purchasing a small block of land, including the township called the Fitzroy Block. This, it will be therefore seen, was the commencing-point of purchasing the district over again; and it is hardly necessary for me to weary you with the different purchases which were made from time to time by Mr. McLean, or under his direction, in that district. One of these purchases was attended by me long before I entered the Land Purchase Department, and it was clear to those who witnessed the transaction that the Commissioner exhibited an amount of energy, unwearying attention, and caution, in dividing the purchase-money among the respective families who owned the land, which established him in the good opinion of the leaders of the Taranaki tribes.

When I was a Land Purchase Commissioner in the Native Department I may say, without being egotistical, I was not unsuccessful in purchasing land under that system, and I am not aware of any real dispute or protest having been raised out of any land purchased by me, except in a political point of view by the adherents of the so-called Maori King. I am, however, prepared to say that, even before the Native Lands Act became law, the Natives in the Kaipara District were so dissatisfied with the amounts I was authorized to offer that it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for me to persuade this people to alienate any more land to the Government.

It would only be troubling you if I were to relate some of my experience in the system of old land purchases; and as for the penny-an-acre Proclamation, it never reached so far south as Taranaki. The Manawatu purchase was, as a Maori at Otaki related it to me, the climax of all land purchases, when it is said that Mr. Buller and Dr. Featherston drove in a dog-cart to Rangitikei, spilled £25,000 out to be scrambled for, and left the settlement.

With regard to the working of the present law, I believe I have already expressed an opinion to the effect that "The Native Lands Act, 1865," was favourably received by the Natives, and the working of this Act was satisfactory to those Natives who were interested in and attended the Courts over which I presided. Whether it was because it was translated into Maori, or its mere novelty, I cannot page 52say, but it is certain that the subsequent Acts and amendments, winch to a very large extent allow every one to give his own translation to the Maori, who has no means of testing their accuracy, have caused an amount of suspicion to arise in the naturally susceptible mind of the Maori, and it is my belief that this suspicion can only be overcome by giving the benefit of a synopsis, in the Maori language, of any consolidated Act which may be passed by the General Assembly.

As regards the Kaipara, Whangarei, and Mahurangi Districts, the only real murmurings I have hoard from the chiefs have been against the Government for imposing such heavy duties upon their laud subsequent to its passing through the Court that they say the net proceeds received by them reduce the amount at times below the former rates. It has also been remarked by some of the younger class of chiefs of ability that as it was in the beginning so it is now—only a system of Land-sharking, with the purchaser on one side and the Government on the other, while the interest of the Natives, being left between the two, sinks into the gap of nothingness.

Whether the Europeans have in reality benefited much by the provisions made for land purchased under the Native Lands Act remains, in my opinion, still to be seen, as the land, for the most part, which has been purchased was not so much for the purpose of land-jobbing as for actual settlement and for a future home—for cattle and sheep runs, which are well known to require capital and time to make profitable; but it is certain that a great benefit has been done to the country, as a good deal of labour has been employed as well as capital for the stocking of these runs, which would never have been the case under the Government land regulations, which admitted of 320 acres as the maximum that could be held by one person.

It has appeared to me, from experience, that the investigation of Native title tinder the Native Lands Act, where the land has not been previously surveyed, is a very great defective point. I may mention the case of Te Aroha, which was always unsatisfactory to my mind from the first, and will, in my opinion, be found to remain a bone of contention for the future. The large blocks of land, inland of Mr. Buckland's run, which have passed your Court, and for which interlocutory orders were granted, are in a precisely similar position—a section of the Ngatiraukawa Tribe will always dispute the law. Raids are frequently made on Buekland's sheep by Natives from the interior, which cannot be prevented except by force. It has always been my opinion that the actual survey of a block of land, from being, as a rule, the result of preliminary discussions, however antagonistic, assists very materially to bring out the real ownership, and leaves the question of title more easily, and clearly determinable. I am, therefore, opposed to the principle of interlocutory orders previous to an actual survey. I do not think much, if anything, can be done now, after the late change, to improve the relative positions of the interpreters, unless you initiate examinations to classify them.

With respect to the surveys, I am of opinion that, with an efficient staff of professional gentlemen under the control of Mr. Heale, the land would be, in most instances, surveyed certainly with more economy and, no doubt, often with greater satisfaction to the Native owners, as, under the present system, a surveyor sometimes employed by a single member of the persons interested in a block of land goes on to the ground and finds that a dispute has taken place about something, probably a boundary-line, and not, perhaps, understanding what the clamour is all about, he remains quiet. A good deal of time is thus often lost, and instances have occurred where the surveyor has been obliged to return without even commencing his work, which was left, probably, to be executed by the more astute successor; while, on the other hand, the Natives at the Court afterwards have been, or pretended to be, astonished at the charges demanded for loss of time. At the last Court in Kaipara a long list of cases was disposed of, and to many of those who attended that Court it was a matter of surprise that most of the cases passed without any controversy taking place, caused by the Natives, at my suggestion two years previously, having taken the precaution to convene meetings for the specific purpose of settling their boundaries for the most part before the surveys were undertaken.

Let me not, however, be understood to say that a prerogative of surveying Native lands should be granted to members of Mr. Heale's staff, as it is evident that such a course would not only prove an, insurmountable obstacle to the purchase of land from many Natives holding possession of some of the most fertile lands of the province: along with the most decided antipathy to anything even resembling an authority from the Government to suppress their liberty of choice, it would not only give umbrage to the great bulk of our European population, who are advocates of general commercial freedom, but it would also prove a severe blow, if not privation of subsistence, to many holding a purchased professional license, which in itself implies a necessity as well as a right to enter the lists of competition.; though I must confess experience goes to prove that where there has been an over-competition, which means to do it anyhow as long as it will pay, the work was seldom executed to the satisfaction even of the Natives; so, while viewing all the sides of the case, I apprehend it to be a very great difficulty to organize a system which would reconcile all interests or be consistent with all principles, and without, being liable, by one side or the other, to reasonable objections. Before concluding my remarks on this subject, I beg to say, and I hope without disparagement or offence to Mr. Heale's office, that although the intellectual faculties of the present generation of New Zealanders are gradually growing more enlightened, 1 am convinced that a surveyor in the country should be able to have a knowledge of the Maori language, and better still (where convenient) if personally acquainted with the owners. This would obviate recurrences and check such feelings of prejudice as were displayed lately in the North, where the trigonometrical survey was delayed, because the officer in charge could not or did not explain the purpose of his operations to Komene, who could easily have been convinced of the advantage of this survey to himself.

I now come, to point 5 of your letter, which requires a solution of the very essence of the so-called Native question. As my mind is not yet clear on this subject, and as this letter is longer than was intended, with your permission I will leave it to time and the drinking customs of society, which will assuredly dispose of the New Zealander if some great change does not overcome their present mode of life.