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entails on the Natives continual disputes, because the tribes which claim them are but the disorganized remains of a once numerous people, which have but recently returned from slavery and exile.

That the discord, rivalry, and conflicting claims of this broken people, who have lost all respect for the authority of those who, under other circumstances would have been their hereditary chiefs, has prevented them from acting in concert for the disposal of the lands they collectively claim; although many sections among them are most anxious to dispose of a species of property, which is unproductive of any real benefit to them and retards their progress in civilisation.

That the Native feud, which has for the last four years been raging in Taranaki, originated in the attempt of Rawiri Waiaua, a native assessor and the principal chief of his tribe, to sell a piece of land to the Government, which had been a cause of quarrel between himself and one of his relations. Katatore, an inferior chief of the same tribe and a minor claimant, was unwilling that the land should be sold; and on Rawiri proceeding to mark out the boundary for the Government, he and several of his followers were shot down by Katatore and his adherents. It was the first blood which had been shed among the Natives since the arrival of the settlers. The local authorities were paralyzed, for they were too feeble to apprehend the murderers; but the survivors and friends of Rawiri assembled in arms, and would have proceeded to immediate hostilities, had they not been dissuaded from taking such a step by the Resident Wesleyan missionary, who assured them that British law would be enforced. Unhappily at this crisis, His Excellency Colonel Wynyard, the officer administering the government of the Colony, was daily awaiting the arrival of a permanent Governor, the first General Assembly under the Constitution Act was in session and the whole machinery of government was in a state of transition. The government of the day decided not to act, and despatched Mr Commissioner McLean to inform the Natives that the murder was the result of a Native quarrel in which the government could not interfere. The friends of Rawiri burning for revenge and finding that the law was not to be enforced, expressed great indignation, because the interval which had elapsed had enabled Katatore to secure himself in a strong pa and to assemble around him a number of men hostile to the sale of land. The friendly Natives urged that they were friendly to the settlers, that they had conformed to our law in not taking revenge for their slain relatives, and that now they must either submit to the dictation of Katatore, or contest with him unassisted by the Government a cause in which the colonists and themselves were equally concerned. They urged, moreover, that such had been their reliance on the justice and the power of the Government, that they had ceased to reckon on their own strength; they had allowed their guns to rust and possessed but a scanty store of powder and ball, while their opponents, who had always been hostile to British occupation, were well armed and munitioned; and their ultimate and least demand was, that they should be supplied with the means of opposing their enemies.

While your memorialists admit that the rictical position of the settlement in 1854 demanded the utmost circumspection on the part of the Government, they are nevertheless of opinion that the enforcement of the law against Katatore and his followers, at any hazard, would have been as wise and prudent, as it would have been a just act.

The history of the past four years has shewn forcibly the lamentable results of a contrary policy. Relieved from all dread of the interference of the Government, the wild passions of the Natives at once found vent. Three months after the murder of Rawiri Waiaua some of the relatives of Ihaia te Kiri Kumera executed summary justice on a Ngatiruanui Native, who had been guilty of adultery with Ihaia's wife, and this act was speedily followed by the invasion of Ihaia's land by 300 men of that tribe. Ihaia's pa was stormed and taken after a stout resistance, and Ihaia and his surviving followers were only saved by a friendly diversion, effected by the adherents of Rawiri. The Ngatiruanui, after their victory, visited Katatore and remained in the vicinity of his pa for some days; but happily for the peace of the settlement they decided on returning to their homes by the way they had come, instead of marching through the town as they at one time contemplated. In the meantime the feud between the friendly Natives and Katatore hourly gathered strength. Arama Karaka, the brother of Rawiri, arrived from the South and assembled in the Ninia pa all the Natives in the vicinity who advocated the sale of land, while Katatore was joined by Wiremu Kingi and subsequently by the Ngatiruanui. It was at this time that the danger of the settlement became imminent, for the mass of the settlers were known to sympathise with the friendly Natives besieged in the Ninia pa, and many of them supplied the besieged with munitions of war. It was also at this time, that at the pressing instance of the settlers