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No. 23. [Telegram.] Government Buildings, Wellington, 28th March, 1911. Bowler, Native Office, Auckland. Mokau Order in Council signed; will include this week's Gazelle. Thos. W. Fisher.

No. 24. [Telegram.] Government Buildings, Wellington, 24th March, 1911. Bowler, Native Office, Auckland. Mokau not yet returned from Governor. Thos. W. Fisher. No. 25. Office of the Waikato-Maniapoto District Maori Land Board, Auckland, 14th January, 1911. Memorandum for the Under-Secretary, Native Department, Wellington. Mokau-Mokakatino Blocks Nos. If, Ig, 2h, and h. At its sitting on the 6th instant applications under section 203 of the Native Land Act, 1909, in respect of the above lands came before the Board for consideration. The areas affected are—No. If, 27,492 acres ; No. Ig, 2,969 acres ; No. Ih, 19,576 acres ; No. Ij, 4,260 acres. The position as disclosed to the Board is as follows : The interests of the Native owners, or some of them, are subject to various leases, all registered under the Land Transfer Act, to Mr. Joshua Jones for a term of fifty-six years from July, 1882, on various rents and subject to various covenants. Mr. Jones's leasehold interest has since become vested in Mr. Herrman Lewis, who now seeks to acquire the freehold. The minutes taken are rather voluminous, but the position is briefly as follows : Meetings of assembled owners have been called to consider the proposed purchase by Mr. Lewis, but so far as the owners are concerned the matter is still in abeyance. The resolution submitted for consideration by the owners is as follows : " That the proposal of Herrman Lewis be accepted —namely, that the Native owners should sell to him and he should purchase the altove-mentioned piece of land and all the right, title, estate, and interest of the Native owners therein for a sum of money to be ascertained in manner hereinafter provided, upon the terms and conditions expressed in a draft agreement hereunto annexed and marked ' A,' between the Maori Land Board of the Waikato-Maniapoto District of the one part and the said Herrman Lewis of the other part (which draft agreement shall be deemed to be incorporated herein). The price shall be the same proportion of £25,000 as the capital value of this block, shown by the 1911 Government valuation, bears to the total capital value of this block and Subdivisions lα, Ih, and 1j of the Mokau-Mohakatino Block. Should the said capital value of the interest of nuch as the vendors who are non-lessors and the capital value of the owner's interest as shown in the valuation roll of the interest of such of the vendors who are lessors in this block be more than the said purchasemoney, then the said purchase-money shall be increased by such a sum as shall be necessary to make good the deficiency. And the said Maori Land Board of the Waikato-Maniapoto Maori Land District be and it is hereby empowered to execute, as the agent of the Native owners, in the name of the Board, the said agreement and any instrument or instruments of alienation contemplated or provided for by the said agreement." The resolution above quoted refers to No. If only, but it is on all-fours in respect to the resolutions of the remaining three subdivisions. Counsel in support of the* application urged that the question as to whether or not the owners agreed to pass the resolutions in favour of the proposed sales is hardly now relevant. The present proceedings are merely to place the proposed purchaser in such a position that he can buy if the Natives will sell. The matter, as placed before the Board, suggests that it is in the public interest that expensive litigation, now said to be pending between the lessee, the Natives, and the Government, should, if possible, be avoided, and it is urged, that such can best be avoided by the fee-simple of the land being acquired by the proposed purchaser. It has been made plain to us that the proposed purchaser is to be required to subdivide and road the land, and to place it upon the market within the period of three years in sections of a size such as will conform with the requirements of Part XII of the Native Land Act, 1909. A draft agreement was submitted to the Board, the effect of which is such as to provide that if the resolutions proposed are passed by the owners the Board will transfer the land to the Public Trustee, who will, when directed by the Board, issue separate titles to Mr. Lewis's purchasers. The present applications to the Governor in Council are therefore that the limitation provisions of Part XII shall be postponed for a period of three years. As a reason for this it was urged that the process of survey, reading, and subdivision is a difficult and expensive one, and that it is practically impossible to finance the project unless the block can first be brought into one ownership. The Board, after consideration, decided that His Excellency the Governor in Council be recommended to issue the Order in Council asked for permitting the acquisition by Mr. Lewis of the whole of the areas comprised in the blocks named. This recommendation is forwarded to you in compliance with Regulation 20 of the regulations relating to Native Land Boards in the Native Land Act, 1909.

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