G—B

at or immediately adjoining a place distinctly specified, such land being described as accurately as may be practicable." It is unnecessary to burden this memorandum with all the conditions, but it should be said that there were certain conditions which were intended by Governor Fitzroy for the protection of the Maori interests. Inter alia, it was provided that, of all land purchased from the aborigines in consequence of the Crown's right of pre-emption being waived, one-tenth part of fair average value as to position and quality was to be conveyed by the purchaser to Her Majesty for public purposes, especially the future benefit of the aborigines. It was also provided that, as a contribution to the Land Fund and for the general purposes of Government, fees would be demanded in ready money at the rate of 4s. per acre for nine-tenths of the aggregate quantity of land over which it might be requested that the Crown's right of pre-emption might be waived, and these fees were payable into the Treasury on receiving the Governor's consent to waive the right of pre-emption. Further, on the issue of a Crown grant after an interval of at least twelve months from the time of paying the first-mentioned contribution, additional payments would be required at the rate of 6s. per acre, to be applied to the Land Fund and for the general purposes of Government. The land so obtained was to be surveyed at the expense of the purchaser. There was a further provision that no Crown grants would be issued under the arrangements set out in the Proclamation to any person or persons who might be found to have contravened any of the regulations. 97. The charge of 10s. per acre was in the nature of a tax upon the purchaser, but" it was objectionable because it might have the effect of reducing the amount of purchasemoney which any proposing purchaser would be prepared to pay the Maoris for their land. This point, however, is of very little importance, because the scheme was a failure — and it was a failure for the very reason, no doubt, that the tax or charge of 10s. per acre would have involved the purchaser in paying more for the land than he considered it was worth. In the result the aggregate area of the lands purchased in pursuance of this Proclamation and the certificates of waiver of pre-emption issued thereunder was only the negligible quantity of 1,795 acres. The total of surplus lands arising from these transactions is at the most what Mr, Cooney himself describes as the " paltry " acreage of 68 acres, and he admits that apart from these 68 acres the Maoris have no claim on the basis of surplus land in connection with the lands purchased under the ten-shilling-per-acre Proclamation. As a matter of fact, the Commission finds the true surplus to which the Maori vendor might have had a claim in equity and good conscience to be only 9 acres. 98. The ten-shillings-per-acre Proclamation having been a failure, and the Natives still being clamorous to be placed in the position of being able to sell land, Governor Fitzroy, on the 10th October, 1844:, issued the penny-per-acre Proclamation, whereby he proclaimed that, from the date of the Proclamation, no fees would be demanded on consenting to waive the right of pre-emption, and that the fees payable on the issue of Crown grants would be at the rate of one penny per acre, which, of course, was nothing but a nominal charge, insufficient even to cover merely the clerical work in connection with the preparation and issue of grants. Various provisions as to making application for the waiver of the right of pre-emption and other matters were substantially the same as in the ten-shillings-per-acre Proclamation. In point of fact, though this is anticipatory in the narrative, the purchaser under this penny-per-acre Proclamation was eventually called upon to pay a Government tax or charge of ss. per acre, but this was not open to the same objection as the 10s. charge in the first Proclamation, or, indeed, to any other objection, except from the view of the purchaser, because it was not imposed until long after the purchase was made, and therefore had no effect whatever upon the purchaser's decision as to the amount of purchase-money that he was prepared to pay. Under the penny-per-acre Proclamation many certificates of waiver of pre-emption were given, and the lands purchased under these certificates amounted in the aggregate

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