I think the problem is that you don't have a current set of .mk files
in /usr/share/mk.  The NetBSD packages .mk files have changed quite a
bit from those released with 1.3.  You need to update bsd.port.mk,
bsd.port.subdir.mk and bsd.own.mk to have the pkgsrc stuff work as
expected.
--
   Johnny C. Lam
   Department of Statistics             lamj@stat.cmu.edu
   Carnegie Mellon University           http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~lamj/

                            @>---`---,----

>    Do I have correct impression if I assume $MACHINE_ARCH is not
>    translated when it's in PLIST-mi file (there shouldn't be any need for
>    this, I think)?
> 
>    Relevant parts of package building & installing process is attached to
>    the end of this message, maybe someone can provide a patch for this?
> 
>    ===>  Building package for perl-5.00404
>    tar: can't add file lib/perl5/${MACHINE_ARCH}-netbsd/5.00404/CORE/EXTERN.h :
>  No such file or directory
> 
> The problem is that ${MACHINE_ARCH} isn't handled right for any PLIST
> file.  I just sent a patch to Alistair Cooke to fix this and provide
> some other enhancements.  Don't know when it will be incorporated, but
> the part for this problem follows.
> 
> Cheers,
> Brook