A.—No. 4.

No. 1. Memobandtjm by Mr. Fox. The Waitotara District, on the south side only of that river, was formerly purchased from the resident tribes by Governor Browne and Mr. McLean, very ample reserves being made for the Natives. This purchase did not include the densely wooded and somewhat rugged inland country through which the ■course of the Waitotara River runs before it meets the open and level land approaching the sea, which formed the principal subject of the purchase. Before it was occupied by settlers, the campaigns under Generals Cameron and Chute occurred. The country north of the Waitotara Riyer, and as far as the Waingongoro River, belonging to Natives who fought against the Queen in those campaigns, was at their termination confiscated, as well as some of the reserves on the south side of the Waitotara River. Nearly all the Government land in both districts was subsequently surveyed for free grants to Military Settlers, interspersed with. Native Reserves. The former were, for the most part, distributed to members of the Colonial Forces. On the latter, rebel Natives who had submitted were allowed to locate themselves, intermixed with the military allotments. Before the outbreak of June, 1868, a great part of the Waitotara Block south of the river had been occupied by settlers, some of whom had made very considerable investments and improvements. Messrs. Moore and Currie had erected dwelling-houses and other buildings worth £3,000 ; others had very substantial houses, while many had large numbers of cattle and sheep. Considerable cultivations had also been commenced. North of the Waitotara, the settlers, though numerous, had made less progress, but many of them had erected homesteads and made improvements. A considerable quantity of stock was owned by them, and most of them risked all they possessed in the world. There were, I believe, more than one hundred homesteads altogether north of Kai Iwi Stream, the southern boundary of Waitotara Block. The township of Patea or Carlyle had been established at the mouth of the river, and that of Wairoa (inland) between the Waitotara and Patea Rivers. The Pakakohe, the Ngaruru, and other Native hapus lived partly on the reserves which had been set apart for them within the limits of the confiscated and purchased blocks; partly beyond those limits, on the banks of the two rivers, in what was considered an inaccessible and certainly was an unknown country. The reserves were restored to them on the express pledge that they would remain loyal. Such was the condition of those districts before the late outbreak. On visiting the district a fortnight ago, I found its condition to be as follows. The whole block was without European inhabitants except at (1) Wairoa, where a few families under shelter of a redoubt had held their own and protected much of their stock during the entire period of disturbances; (2) Patea, in which township about 100 inhabitants had remained during the same period ; and (3) garrisons of Volunteers, of about 40 at each, on pay at Weraroa, Wairoa, Manawapo, and Patea. One or two settlers had reoccupied land in the South Waitotara Block, and one or two houses were being rebuilt there. The same may be said of the country within five or six miles of Patea. As regards Natives, they were entirely gone from the district. A considerable number had surrendered and been placed in prison in Wellington, where they awaited trial. Others had been placed by the late Government under the nominal bail of Honi Pihama, near Opunake, some miles north of the block ; and others had found refuge on the central Wanganui River, where the friendly (or half-friendly) Natives profess, I believe, to be answerable for them. The pas (many of them very fine ones) and cultivations, with all the crops and live stock on the two rivers, for some sixty or seventy miles up, had been utterly destroyed by Major Noake and Captain Kells, in the expeditions which they made up those rivers after Titokowaru had retreated from Taurangaika. Consequently there may be said not to have been, at the time of my visit, a Native of the rebel tribes between Waingongora and Wanganui. A small body which had been allowed to locate themselves south of Waingongora, had, just before my visit been removed to the north of it by the Honorable Mr. McLean's orders, and a party of nine Putiki (Wanganui) Natives and one rebel Native (who had been on bail among them) were found by me at Pakaraka, on the South Waitotara Block. These I ordered back to Putiki, and they went, though the rebel is reported to have since broken parole and returned to Titokowaru. Immediately on my arrival at Wanganui, and again at Patea, I was waited upon by deputations of the dispossessed Colonists who were desirous of knowing what the Government would do to enable them to return to their farms with some feeling of security and a prospect of their being able to remain there. In the course which I then determined to adopt to meet the wishes of these settlers, I was guided, Ist, by the fact that the House of Representatives had voted £10,000 for the express purpose of assisting them to return to their farms ; 2nd, by the general expression of a desire on all sides of the House that they should do so, —only, with a caution to the Government not to allow such dispersion as might weaken their tenure on the district.

PAPEEB RELATIVE TO THE PATEA DISTRICT.