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arranged as a site for it. That the block surveyed was at the only place suitable for a township for the vairaa extension of the Hauraki Gold Mining District. That Gerald O'Halloran and John William Richard Guilt ling, two officers in the service of the General Government, and paid by them, had entered into arrangements with the Natives for a lease of the reserve in question on behalf of themselves and ethers. That I was likely to apply to the Crown and recommend the issue of a Crown Grant to the Natives interested. That it was necessary to prevent great and irreparable loss and damage to the

$; plaintiff as Superintendent of the Province to issue an injunction against the execution of such Grant and -to stop any lease from the Native owners to John William Richard Guilding and Gerald O'Halloran on behalf of themselves or others."

This I believe to be the substance of the declaration, and I shall new proceed to state the fact of

the case.

In December, 1872 I commenced neoeciations for the sale of the Tairua Block to the Crown. After
.y discussions of , the question a deed was prepared which contained no reservations except those of the
Tights of Seccombe and Son to kauri timber (which had been acquired in 1864). No mention had been
'made of a reserve as none had then been asked for. The purchase money spoken of was three thousand
pounds, but on the day thedeed was presented for execution the granteesat the lastmoment demanded a resery
of two thousand acres or a payment of three thousand six hundred pounds, being one hundred pounds
';per thousand acres. I then agreed to pay two thousand nine hundred pounds and allow a reserve of one

-thousand acres which was to be selected within three months, and in not more than two blocks. The .

late of the larger portion of the reserve was fixed at Pukiore, at the head of the navigation of the Tairua .

river, and the position of the remainder was not determined, some of the Natives being in favor of taking

it at Te Karaka, burial ground, and others near the mouth of the river. I did not deem it advisable to alter the conveyance or cumber it with a covenant to produce title deeds. I therefore asked the Natives to' convey the whole to the Crown on the understanding that a Grant should be issued to them for one -thousand acres, and to satisfy them, endorsed the particulars of this arrangement on the back of the deed.

, The Natives within the three months applied to me to survey the reserves, and I told them it would be attended to as soon as my other engagements would allow of it.

In my report of the 24th March, 1873, (vide G. 8, Appendix to Journal of the House of Representatives; 1873), I thus alluded to the .Tairua purchase Tairua, area 36,000 acres, price £2,900 It adjoins Whenuakiti (Government land) and gives access to the sea to the eastward. Gold has been found

• in these blocks. Not yet included in Gold Mining District. Reason of delay in proclamation is the non-completion of survey of the Wharekawa Block (purchase negociated, vide Return No. 2). Wharekawa separates these Blocks from the Whangamata Block. Some land available for cultivation on these blocks. A reserve of one thousand acres to be selected in one or two blocks is to be made at Tairua and a Grant issued for the same to the owners as arranged by the Native Land Court."

In April, 1873, Timothy Sullivan was murdered by Purukutu at Waikato, and I was requested ,to proceed there as Agent for the General Government, which effectually precluded me from completing the .arrangements for surveying the reserves as I was absent from the Thames district for upwards of twelve mantras. I had no communication with the Natives respecting the reserve until the 11th May last, when .a letter was forwarded to me requesting me to have it surveyed.

I enclose the original with translation. I instructed Mr. John Guilding, a licensed Interpreter in my employ and who is not a Government officer, to proceed to Tairua with a Surveyor and lay off the reserve. This was done. Nine hundred and ninety acres were surveyed at Pukiore and ten acres at Te Kutakuta, near the mouth of the river. They applied to me on the 26th May to allow them to take twenty acres at Te Karaka burial ground, and reduce the Pukiore reserve to nine hundred and seventy acres, as by letter enclosed herewith with translation. The latter question has not been arranged.

With reference to the objection raised, that I had no right to lay off the reserve at Tairua 'without consulting the Provincial Government, I would beg to state that I received orders from the Hon. Mr. Ormond and the Hon. the Native Minister, to make reserves for Natives where necessary, and I have on no occasion gone beyond the letter or spirit of those instructions.

I afterwards saw a statement in the Thames Advertiser, published at the time of Sir George Grey's visit to the gold fields, to the effect that this reserve was unknown before the proclamation of the Tairua extension of the Hauraki gold mining district ; that it was subsequently made at the only site suitable for a township for that district, and had been leased to private persons for that purpose. It was insinuated afterwards that I, or some person in my employ, had leased the land from the Natives.

These assertions and insinuations culminated in the writ of summons sued out on behalf of Sir George Grey by his solicitor, and the affidavit and declaration made on the 10th instant, copies of which will be forwarded if obtainable. As far as I am concerned, I distinctly deny that I ever asked the Natives to lease to me the Tairua Reserve, or any portion of it, or that I ever suggested, directly or indirectly, to any person whomsoever to do so, either on my behalf or on his own account.

I leave the other defendants mentioned in the writ to -vindicate their own conduct, which I have no doubt will bear the light of thorough investigation. I would have replied more fully to the allegations contained in the declaration had a copy of it been procurable. If any of the allegations made in the declaration to the writ issued against myself and others in the Supreme Court, respecting the Tairau Reserve are incorrect, Sir George Grey cannot plead that he was refused any information on the subject of the Tairua land purchase or the leases of timber there, as he was, on the 22nd of June last, apprised by the Hon. the Colonial Secretary that I had been instructed to furnish him with any information he required on the subject. On 25th June, I forwarded a telegraphic message to him to that effect. I received a reply that nothing but a copy of a telegram was required: In supplying this I, on the 28th ultimo, again offered to give any information or explanation in my power required by His Honor. This he declined in his letter of the 29th June, saying he thought it desirable under the present circumstances to communicate direct with the General Government. If Sir George Grey had taken advantage of the offer made to him by the Hon. the Colonial Secretary he would have been furnished with full particnlars about the Tairua land purchase and timber leases, and need not have been under the necessity of employing a secret agent to