Ohinemuri, are willing to sell those that they own at Waikawau and Cape Colville (at least 130,000 acres). In order to secure their assent to the construction of the telegraph line through their district, I have been compelled to make them presents amounting to upwards of £250, and in procuring their assent to sell the Waikawau and Cape Colville blocks, I have been further obliged to advance to them goods to the amount of £1367–1–5d, of which sum I have paid upwards of £1000 from private funds, which now causes me considerable pecuniary annoyance. I need not, I am sure, draw your attention to the manner in which the people of Ngatitamatera clamoured for these advances of goods and stores, as you have been witness to it on several occasions at Ohinemuri, and if I had failed to make them the telegraph and land purchase questions would not have been in the present satisfactory and forward state.
I do not ask the Government to repay to me the sum of £250 which I gave away in presents on account of the telegraph line, as I presume they will expect me to deduct it from the bonus of £500 payable to me for removing that difficulty, but I am compelled to request that an advance of £1000 be made to me to enable me to overcome my present financial difficulty.
The Natives have agreed to go with me on to the blocks of land and point out their respective pieces within the next two or three weeks, and I then propose to take definite receipts from each of them for the sums advanced on account of the purchase, which receipts will be my vouchers against the amounts received by me from the Colonial Treasury.
As a rule I object to making large advances to Natives on account of the purchase of lands, but I think you will concur with me that this is an exceptional case, and that the political results from my recent proceedings with respect to the Ngatitamatera tribe have been beneficial to the Government of this Colony.
I would moreover point out that, but for being able to administer to the necessities of these Natives, which are at present very great, they would not have been so universally willing to dispose of their claims to the Waikawau and Cape Colville blocks.3
Later that month he added that
I anticipate being able to acquire [Cape Colville] at a price not exceeding 2/- per acre. . . .
I would point out that the present is a good opportunity for purchasing at a low figure (probably for less than above stated) the claims of the tribe Ngatitamatera to the Waikawau and Cape Colville blocks, as the old chief Taraia Ngakuti and the young chief Paora Te Putu belonging to that tribe have recently died, and there is a great demand for money to purchase provisions for the great "tangi" which is to take place over the deceased chiefs. If Dr Pollen was at present in Auckland, I would suggest the advisability of at once purchasing the claims of these natives, and procuring a Deed of Cession to the Crown of the Waikawau and Cape Colville blocks.
A sum of £5000 would probably accomplish this now, and as the area of the Waikawau block is estimated by the surveyor (Mr OM Creagh) to be about 100,000 acres, and the Cape Colville block is estimated by Mr Tole to be about 50,000 acres, this would be a very desirable purchase, being only 8d per acre.4
Mackay, in making these remarks, was reporting to the Provincial Superintendent in Auckland, Thomas Gillies, in the absence of Dr Pollen, the Agent for the General Govern-
ment, from Auckland. Because of Pollen's absence, Gillies advanced Mackay £2000 for land purchases, and then
3 J Mackay, Auckland, to Agent for General Government Auckland, 4March 1872. Maori Affairs Head Office file MLP 1873/31. Supporting Papers #82.1–6.
4J Mackay, Auckland, to Auckland Provincial Superintendent, 20 March 1872, attached to Auckland Provincial Superintendent to Colonial Secretary, 4 April 1872. Maori Affairs Head Office file MLP 1873/35. Supporting Papers #83.1–6.
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