NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

(Province of Taranaki).

Published by Authority.

Vol. XII.] NEW PLYMOUTH, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1864. [No. 8.

The following Documents and Correspondence are printed for public information by order of the Provincial Council of the Province of Taranaki.

W. M. CROMPTON,
Speaker.

By virtue of an arrangement made by all that section of the Ngatiawa Tribe for the sake of defence against the Waikatos: 2. That a large number of Natives, between 200 and 300, were living upon the block at the time when it was offered for sale, whose dwellings and cultivations were destroyed prior to sale; and 3. That Teira, as he now safely, never intended to sell the pahs, one of which was in his own occupation...

Copy of Despatch from His Grace

The Duke of Newcastle, K.G., to Governor

Sir George Grey, K.C.B.

Downing-street,
25th August, 1863.

SIR,—I have the honor to acknowledge your Despatch, No. 56, of the 27th May, enclosing a Proclamation by which you announced the abandonment of the purchase of the land at the Waitara, which was offered for sale to the Government in 1859, and conditionally accepted by your predecessor.

I thought it my duty to convey to you at once by the last mail my approval of the course which you had then resolved to take; and I now proceed to address you more fully upon the subject, with reference especially to your Despatch, No. 39, of the 27th April, and the communications between yourself and your Ministers which it enclosed.

The facts upon which you mainly ground the important decision at which you have arrived, and which, strange to say, have only now been discovered by your personal enquiries, and by Teira’s admissions to the Native Minister (Mr. Dillon Bell) appear to be these:—1. That W. King’s residence on the disputed land upon the South bank of the Waitara in virtue of a general tribal arrangement for purposes of defence was not merely, as had always been represented by the sellers, by permission of Teira’s father, but in the deed of sale, as ought to have been done...

I proceed to explain to you the effect which these statements have produced upon my mind, both with respect to the transactions of 1859-60, and the measure which you have now adopted.

If it be true that a considerable number of families residing upon and cultivating portions of the land offered for sale (variously estimated at from 10 to 120 acres out of the 980 acres which formed the “Block”) I have no doubt but that Governor Gore Browne and his Ministers, upon discovering the fact, would have carefully reserved and respected such portions, in accordance with the invariable practice of the New Zealand Government, or even have refused to have any further dealings with parties who, like Teira and the other sellers, had been guilty of concealing from the Governor so important a circumstance. If again they had been aware that W. King had established his residence on the South bank of the Waitara in virtue of a general tribal arrangement for purposes of defence, that fact might have formed an important element in their decision as to whether the purchase could properly and safely be proceeded with. On the whole, I agree with you that your predecessor if he had been in possession of these facts, would not