G.— 2.

Natives have, in the district now referred to, been well provided for ; and, except some questions of minor consequence, there did not appear to be much to require our intervention. It is north of Waingongoro that there still exist great complications, arising so far as we can discover from the vacillating policy of many Governments. It is in the hope of being able to throw upon the events of the time the light necessary for the removal of these complications, that we now ask Your Excellency's attention to an examination of the policy which appears to have guided successive Ministries from time to time. It was imperative on us to make such an examination, if we would convey to Tour Excellency a true idea of the present bearings of the question. II. —Aspect op Affairs after the Rebellion. When the insurrection w ras suppressed, the country between Waitotara and Cape Egmont had been all but deserted by Natives and settlers alike. In October 1869, so far up as the outskirts of the settled districts at New Plymouth, the country was without a European inhabitant save about a hundred at Patea township, a few families that had gallantly remained at the Wairoa throughout the w rar under the shelter of our redoubts, and the outposts and blockhouses garrisoned by a handful of volunteers and a Ngatiporou contingent. A homestead only here and there was being rebuilt. As to rebel Natives, they had entirely disappeared. All their pas and cultivations had been utterly destroyed. There was not a Native of the rebel tribes to be seen from Waitotara to Wain_ron_?oro. The House of Representatives voted £10,000 to assist the settlers in reoccupying their farms. But before the settlers would do so, they exacted from the Minister a promise that if they returned to their homes, the Government would forbid the rebel Natives coming back. No Native fire was to be lighted again by a rebel in the Patea country. This policy was sternly carried out. News having come in that small parties of Titokowaru's followers were creeping back to the north bank of Waingongoro, a reconnoitring party went out and shot two of the men and captured a woman; at another place, some miles up the Waitotara River, another Native was shot and a second woman taken. Eor a time this severity deterred the insurgents from renewing any attempt to reoccupy their country. In the meanwhile, the loyal Natives to the north of Waingongoro had been encouraged to take employment on public w rorks, and tlie Government had made a strong effort to open communication by the coast with the settled districts round New Plymouth. Contracts were made -with Wi Kingi Matakatea and his _ people at Opunake, with Hone Pihama and his people at Geo, and with Manaia and his people at Kaupukunui, for the formation of the coast-road, and this work went on without interruption. Early in 1870 the settlers' began to return in some numbers to their former homes. They still desired that no Native should be suffered to come back. Perhaps it w ras not unnatural that the exasperation to which they had been driven should have tempted many to distort the promise of the Prime Minister from " rebel Native " into " any Native." But the promise could, of course, have 1 no application to men like Hone Pihama, " the best blood of Ngatiruanui tribe," , to whom Mr. Richmond had given back many thousand acres of the Patea land, and who had not only " loyally helped us in the war of 1868, suffering jointly with the settlers in life and property, but had often abandoned their private i property at the call of the Government." Still less could it apply to such men as . Major Kemp and his warriors, who had fought with great bravery by our side. Kemp had indeed claimed nearly all the territory between Waitotara and Wairoa rivers, and with difficulty had been induced to accept 400 acres, after a Royal Commission had failed to satisfy his first demands. The Government were placed in all the more difficulty by these conflicting claims, that there were not wanting signs of a growing uneasiness farther north. Titokowaru and his followers were moving to and fro in the Ngatimaru and Waitara country with arms in their hands. At Te Whiti's half-yearly meeting \ in March 1870, it became evident that until something should be done to settle down these Ngatiruanui wanderers, peace could not be relied upon. It was becoming very difficult to manage the disaffected chiefs, while the attitude

1869. Mr. Pox, Pirst Minute, Ist November 1869. P. P. 1870, A.-4.

Grant of £10,000, September 1868.

Mr. Pox, Second Minute, Ist Feb. 1870. P. P.18.0,A.-4.

Parris, Eeport, 25th Oct. 18(39. P.P.1870,A.-17.

1870.

Hon. Mv. Richmond, speech, 4th August 1868. Hansard, Vol. ii., p. 2G5. Worgan, Eeport, 2nd August 1872. Pharazyn, Eeport, sth Julv 1870. P. P. 1872,0.--4A.

Parris, Eeport, 23rd March 1870. P.P.1870.A.-16.

XIV