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from the Urewera in reference to a block where what they call their kuwahas (entrances to their country, by Horomanga and Ahikereru) are situated —a block of 30,000 acres within their rohe-potae, on portions of the best of the freehold, of which I have paid about £101 ; for Te Makarini, who represented " the Seventy," at the recent meeting at Galatea, said nothing about Tauaroa and Kuhawaea ; when he spoke on the 14th ultimo, his attention was exclusively confined to the subject of the proposed Government lease at Raungaehe. Before proceeding further. I would observe that on the occasion of my conversation with Tamaikowha on the 30th January, I was impressed with the belief that he would be willing to lease his land if he could only trust the Pakeha, if the Urewera chiefs could but trust each other, and if they understood the proper management of leases. And I would further rema-rk (though this is en passant), relative to the special circumstances under which he visited me, that, in reply to one of my questions, he said he would not go to Waikato to help the king should he try to prevent Ngatiraukawa from making a road over their own land between Cambridge and Niho o te Kiore, for, said he, the king has no right to interfere with Ngatiraukawa upon their own land. I have said that in this block of Tauaroa and Kuhawaea I have worked without assistance. I mean this to apply first, in a lesser sense, to Mr. Troutbeck, because on him I have no claim other than that which is due to a Government whose efforts would certainly improve his position, and because if he, as a pioneer, has special claims, he must have also special obligations towards the Government. But chiefly do T make this remark in reference to Captain Mair. I had a right to expect him to act up to the terms of the arrangement you made with him in December, but he has not done so. He has not complied with, or replied to, or in any way taken notice of memoranda, copies of which are herewith enclosed ; on the contrary, the Natives over whom he has most influence are most opposed to me. The Natives who have received £400 of his money for a large tract of land in the district of which he is the District Officer—land extending from above Galatea to near Tarawera, which the Government has, at considerable expense, commissioned Messrs. Mitchell and Davis to procure for them—these Natives, Peraniko and they who support him, are precisely the persons with whom I have experienced the most difficulty. Personally, I may be quixotical in my repugnance to dabble in lands in respect of which I have received a Government trust, and my objection to see other officers similarly situated so dabbling may be very Utopian ; but I cannot help thinking that if the system under which Captain Mair has been lately gazetted, I may say promoted, is to succeed, it must be administered by men who will honestly support it, whose code as towards the Government is of a higher kind, and who will not tempt Natives by surreptitious offers to outbid Government on lands which its agents have advanced money upon, as Captain Mair did on the 14th ultimo, when he offered Tikitu £100 down on Waikowhiwhi, or as when Ngatirangitihi were tempted on the following day to allow his so called boundary to extend to Euawahia. #*####*# I have, &c, J. A. Wilson.

Enclosure in No. 6. Memoranda addressed by Post to Captain Mair at Eotorua. Tauranga, 19th January, 1874. Captain J. A. Wilson has the honor to forward the enclosed extract for the information of Captain Mair, and to state that, as Government Commissioner for the purchase of land in the Tauaroa District, he will be happy to receive such assistance as Captain Mair may be able to afford. J. A. Wilson. Exteact from letter to me from the Hon. the Natiye Ministeb. With reference to the land which Messrs. Mair and Bluett were trying to obtain, I have the honor to inform you that those gentlemen have withdrawn from the speculation, and that they will afford the Government any assistance in their power to obtain this land.

No. 7. Captain Maib to the TTndeb. Secbetaby, Native Department. Sik,— Wellington, Bth June, 1874. I have the honor to call your attention to a leader which appeared in the Daily Southern Cross of the 30th May (herewith enclosed), reflecting upon me as an officer of the Native Department, in reference to certain negotiations by the Government agents for acquiring land, with which, it is alleged, I seriously interfered. The fact of my name having been made the subject of comment by newspapers is a matter of perfect indifference to me ; but I deem it a duty which I owe to the Hon. the Native Minister, as well as in justice to myself, that I should in this case invite his attention to this matter. The Hon. Mr. McLean will remember that since the year 1865, I, at the urgent request of the Ngatimanawa, entered into an arrangement with them, when the proper time arrived, to lease for a term of years a block in the neighbourhood of Fort Galatea. About twelve months ago that arrangement was carried out, when it was represented to the Government, that I was interfering materially with the negotiations that were then being carried on by the Government agents. I received a letter of remonstrance from the Native Minister, upon which I personally and in writing promised the Hon. Mr. McLean, not only that I would withdraw from any

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