REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE OX THE

9. Were they fighting?— No. 10. Did you hear of any of them leaving for Taranaki?—They were talking about it, but I am not aware any did till after the gun affair. 11. Do you concur iv the following statement of your loss put in by Air. Davis? £ s. d. £ s. d. Purchase money of property (accruing a rental of £200 per annum lease, Ditto ditto £30 from Custom House) 1500 0 0 Book debts 981 !3 g House effects 83 14 0 Cattle 40 0 0 Cutter 50 0 0 Carts, Drays, &c, 40 0 0 Canoes , " 12 0 0 Harrows 14 0 0 Salting-down Apparatus, Boilers, Vats, Casks, Troughs,&c. 80 0 0 Deterioration of Stock by transit 350 0 0 13 Guns, &c 74 19 0 724 13 0 Produce —Wheat. 400 Bushels JGO 0 0 Pork 1 ton 50 0 0 Timber, 25,00J teet 137 10 0 347 10 0 Insurance paid cash 22 17 6 Loss of business for the season 600 0 0 Total £4176 14 2 —I do. 12. Have any other persons been compelled to leave Kawhia against their will?— All the Traders—none of whom had signed the Petition to the Government. 13. Were any of the persons removed living on. Land held under Crown Grants?— None except ourselves. 14. Had you not been removed would you have remained and traded there up to the present time ?—-Decidedly. 15. Do you think you and your goods would have been safe?— Yes, for they told us they would take nothing but the Guns and Ammunition. The Witness then withdrew. The Committee then adjourned till Thursday next the 13th September instant. William Fox, Chairman.

THURSDAY, THE 13tH DAY OP SEPTEMBER 1860. Committee met pursuant to notice. Present:—Mr. Gillies, Mr. Domett, Dr. Monro, Mr. J. C. Richmond, Mr. Fitzgerald, and Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox in the chair. The minutes of the former meeting were read and confirmed. The Order of Reference of the 6th September read. The Hon. C. W. Richmond the Minister for Native Affairs attended the Committee in pursuance of notice. The Chairman requested that he would state what he knew of the circumstances under which the removal of the settlers from Kawhia, and the closing of that Port took place. Mr. Richmond stated as follows :— " I shall be unable to give the Committee any information upon the subject which they have not before them, in a more authentic shape in the documents which have been already called for by the Committee or which are at their disposal. I have no personal knowledge of the circumstances to which the Chairman's question points. My knowledge is derived from the documents to which I have referred ; and as I have not lately looked at them my recollection of what they contain may be in some points defective. " The Native Secretary Mr. McLean had been sent to Raglan to enquire into the state of things at thnt place, and look after the safety of the settlers there. Whilst at that place information reached him that a number of the Ngatihikairoa Tribe resident in Kawhia and its neighbourhood had started, or were on the point of starting, to join William King in Taranaki, and that several stores had been plundered by the Natives of Arms. The Kawhia settlers and amongst them I believe the Messrs. Yates, shewed great and I must say reasonable alarm for their lives, as it has been the custom of the New Zealand Tribes to commence hostilities by the murder of unarmed settlers. The danger was considered imminent by the Native Secretary, who thereupon warned the settlers to leave, and provided vessels for their conveyance at the public expense. Subsequently the course taken by the Native Secretary received His Excellency's approval and the appointment of Kawhia as a Port was repealed under the powers of the Custom's Regulation Act.

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