Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 199, 4 November 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1864.

By the s.s. Beautiful Sta which arrived here yesterday from Auckland, we have papers to the 29th inst. We extract as follows: GENERAL AMNESTY. ■ (From the 'Weekly 'News, October 29.) Last week we had to announce the calling together of the Assembly by the Governor ; this week the most startling topic of news is the attempt he has made to reader the Assembly powerless when it does meet. The peace proclamation is a document which is probably without parallel under any circumstances, certainly it is under circumstances such as ours. It is equivalent to a declaration of being beaten, and a request to the natives in rebellion to let bygones be bygones. Its main characteristic, however, is that of an attempt to forestall the action of the Assembly, and to secure a good excuse for inaction until the Assembly meets. The Governor was, no doubt, aware that the powers of the Colonial and Imperial Representatives respectively would be the first thing to engage the Assembly on its meeting, and so he has decided on doing something while he yet may. The idea is clever enough, looked at from Sir George Grey’s point of view, but the result will hardly, we imagine, prove so good as is expected. A failure in an attempt of this sort will not merely be humiliating, it will be so much more, that it will almost annihilate the influence of the person proposing it. If the natives do not come in large bodies to these terms, the influence of the Governor wil have received as great a blow.as could possibly have been dealt against it. Sir George will have proved a failure, and he is not one of those statesmen who are grand even in their fall. And the chances are all against any large share of submission from the natives. They do not trust the Europeans much, but they trust Sir George Grey the least of all Europeans. Some may consider that the terms offer so much and ask so little, that there can be small danger in accepting them; this very appearance of onesidedness will, beyond a doubt, startle into suspicion the other half.

It is said that already—some time indeed, before the proclamation was issued—native emissaries were sent into the rebel districts to speak of peace, and this was so far worthy of Sir George Grey’s reputation as the only way that held out even a faint hope of success. If success does follow—if the natives do come in to these terms, there can be no doubt now that to the Governor it is wholly owing, that it is wholly an Imperial affair, and that of course this whole expense of an abortive war should be borne by the Imperial chest. The natives in the North are quiet. The Governor has had a visit from sundry chiefs who dislike the presence of the escaped prisoners quite as much as the Matakana settlers can do. It remains to be seen whether, as has been his custom hitherto. Sir George Grey’s ears are more open to the voice of a dark-skinned charmer than to those of the wisest of white ones. The following proclamation appeared in a New Zealand Gazette issued yesterday:— A Peocl.oiation By his Excellencj’ Sir George Grey,'Knight, Commander of the Most Honorable .Order of the Bath, Governor and Cotn-mar.der-in-Chief in and over her Majesty’s Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c., &c. The Governor having been authorised to extend upon certain conditions, her Majesty’s clemency to those tribes who have engaged in the present unhappy rebellion ; Now, therefore, I, Sir George Grey, the Governor of the colony of New Zealand, do hereby notify and proclaim that I will in her Majesty’s name, and on behalf, grant a pardon to all such persons implicated in the rebellion as may como in on or before the 10th day of December next, take the allegiance, and make the cession of such territoy as may in each instance be fixed by the Governor and the Lieut.-General commanding her Majesty’s forces in New Zealand. All those persons who have been engaged in the rebellion who may desire to return, any part of the ceded territory, or within the limits of any European settlement, will bo required to deliver up any arms or ammunition in their possession. ihe pardon promised in this proclamation will not be extended to any persons who may have been engaged in the murders of— Samuel Shaw Samuel Ford Robert Passmore Parker Pote Dr. Hope, Lieut. Tragett, and soldiers, (May 4, 1863.) Robert Patterson Michael Meredith Frederick Richard Meredith

William Cory Scott Robert Watson j Hugh M’Lean Sylvester Calvert Charles Cooper William John Jackson Margaret Fahey Job Hamlin Richard ;Trast ...... Nicholas Trust James Droomgould Henry Crann Hugh Corbyn Harris Barteh John Harford Gaffney (an Artilleryman) Richard Brown Ephraim Coad William Cutfield’King John Hawkin. Given under my hand, at the Government House, at Auckland, and issued under the seal of the colony of New Zealand, this twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four. G. Guey. By his Excellency’s command. God save the Queen.