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for this matter to be gone into carefully. It may be that some of the non-lessors have received rent. The owners, at their meeting, should consider the question of the allocation of the purchase-money. Mr. Dalziell has asked me to explain that if the Supreme Court allows the lease of No. If to continue the lessee has to expend £3,000 per year in working the minerals arid timber, and the owners will have to give up the additional £100 per year they now receive and get in its stead a royalty of 10 per cent, on the net profits, if any, arising from the working thereof. The annual expenditure of £3,000 would, of course, be a matter of great inconvenience to the lessee. Mr. Dalziell formally asks for the Board's recommendation, and hands in for the Board's information a copy of a letter (dated 20th September, 1910) from Mr. Skerrett to the Hon. the Native Minister. Board adjourned until 4 p.m., meetings of the assembled owners of the blocks concerned having been fixed for 2 o'clock. Board again met at 4 p.m. and adjourned till 8 p.m., matters in connection with the meetings of owners not having reached finality. 8 p.m. — Mr. Dalziell: The meetings of owners have been held, but unanimity has not prevailed, and the meetings have been adjourned to a date to be fixed by the President. I would ask the Board to take into consideration the applications for its recommendations under section 203. Question as to whether or not the owners agree to pass the resolutions in favour of the case is hardly now relevant. 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 the expensive litigation pending between the lessee, Natives, and Government should, if possible, be avoided. The terms of the agreement suggested are such as to assure that the purposes of Part XII of the Native Land Act will be given effect to. All that is asked, therefore, is that the limitation provisions of Part XII shall be postponed for a short period. The reason for asking this is that the process of survey, roading, and subdivision is a difficult and expensive one, and it is practically impossible to finance it unless the block can be first brought into one ownership. I therefore suggest that it is in the interest of every one concerned that the desired Orders in Council should issue. The Board, after consideration, decided to grant the recommendations asked for in each case. (Certified as a correct extract from Board's minute-book.—John Harvey, Clerk, Native Department, Wellington.) Extract from Waikato-Maniapoto District Maori Land Board's Minute-book, No. 6, page 48 et seq. Mokau-Mohakatino No. If, 26,480 acres; Mokau-Mohakatino No. Ig, 2,969 acres; i3 / 3 / u - Mokau-Mohakatino No. Ih, 19,576 acres; Mokau-Mohakatino No. Ij, 4,260 acres. Mr. Dalziell appeared and asked the Board to confirm resolutions passed by meetings of assembled owners of these blocks held yesterday. The resolution in regard to No. If was as follows : " That the proposal of Eerrman Lewis be accepted —namely, that the Native owners should sell to him and he should purchase the above-mentioned piece of land, together with Subdivisions Ig, Ih, and 1j of the said Mokau-Mohakatino Block, and all the right, title, estate, and interest of the Native owners therein, for the total sum of £25,000 in cash and £2,500 in fully paid shares in the Mokau Land and Coal-mining Company (Limited), to be paid to the Native owners of such blocks in proportion to their respeciive interests therein, and so that the owners of each block shall receive the same proportion of the said sums of £25,000 and £2,500 as the Government valuation of the owners' interest in such block bears to the total of the Government valuation of the owners' interest in the whole of the said four blocks. and so also that each of the Native owners in each block shall receive in cash not less than the Government valuation of his interest in such block ; and, further, that the Maori Land Board of the WaikatoManiapoto Maori Land District be and is hereby empowered to execute, as the agent of the Native owners, in the name of the Board, an agreement for sale of the said lands to the said Herrman Lewis, his executors, administrators, and assigns, at the said price, such agreement to contain all such terms as the said Board shall deem fit, including a power to the said Board to execute all such instruments of alienation as may be reasonably required for the purpose of carrying out the terms of such agreement." Similar resolutions had been carried simultaneously in regard to Subdivisions lv, Ih. and Ij. The owners have unanimously resolved to sell the whole of their interests in these four blocks for the sum of £25,000 in cash and £2,500 worth of fully-paid-up £10 shares in the Mokau Land and Coal-mining Company (Limited), which company is buying out Lewis. The resolutions recite, in effect, that the basis of distribution of the purchase-money shall be the Government valuation of the owners' interest, with a reservation that each owner shall receive an amount not less than the Government valuation of his particular interest. The question of price that is to be paid for each block and to each owner is therefore purely a matter of calculation. With regard to Subdivisions If and In, all the owners have signed leases, while in the case of 1g and 1j several of the owners have not signed. The Government valuation has been made upon the assumption that all the owners have signed the leases. So far, therefore, as the two last-named blocks are concerned, there must be added to the valuation of the owners' interest the same proportion of the Government valuation of the lessee's interest as the interest of the lessors should, if not assigned, bear to the total interest of all the owners. The resolution provided that the sum to be paid to the Natives in cash shall be not less than the Government valuation of the owners' interest. The distribution of cash and shares is made upon similar bases. As between the owners of 1g and Ih, the owners who have not signed the leases will receive an additional sum, by virtue of the fact that they are non-lessors, to compensate them for the