FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE ESCAPE OF THE MAORI PRISONERS FROM KAWAU. (In continuation of Sessional Papers, 1864, E.—No. 1A.)

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1865 Session I, E-15

E.—No. 15.

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE ESCAPE OF THE MAORI PRISONERS FROM KAWAU. (In continuation of Sessional Papers, 1864, E.—No. 1A.)

PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, BY COMMAND OF HIS EXCELLENCY. WELLINGTON. 1865.

E.—No. 15.

No. 1. Captain Coopee to His Excellency the Goveenoe. Sib,— North Auckland, 28th July, 1865. Having read in the Blue Book the correspondence relative to my visit to the Maoris who escaped from the Kawau, I observe that my letter to your Excellency contradicting the statement of Pomare has been omitted, and as Pomare's uncontradicted statement is calculated to injure my character as an old military officer, I venture to hope you will point out to the Honorable Mr. Weld the justice of publishing in the Blue Book my letter. I have, &c, J. B. Coopee, His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Late Captain 58th Regiment. No. 2. The Undee Seceetaey to Captain Coopee. Sib, — Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 18th August, 1865. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th July, 1865, addressed to His Excellency tho Governor, and in reply am directed by Mr. Richmond to inform you that the letter to which you refer therein will be presented to the House of Representatives, and moved to be printed. I have, &c., W. Gisboene, Captain Cooper, Auckland. Under Secretary. No. 3. Captain Coopee to His Excellency's Peiyate Seceetaey. (Letter referred to above.) Sib,— Orewa, 29th October, 1864. I beg you will thank His Excellency the Governor for having furnished me with the statement said to have been made by Hare Pomare, a clerk in the Native Office, before the Honorable Mr. Russell and the Colonial Secretary, relative to the communication I had with the Maoris who have escaped from the Kawau. This statement was taken on the 14th instant, and a very similar statement, with comments thereon, was published in the Southern Cross on the following day, the 15th October. From the dates and similarity of the statement furnished me and the one published in the Cross, I conceive I am correct in the belief that the statement, if not the comments also, was supplied to the Ministerial paper by one of the Ministers, or at all events, with the concurrence or at the instigation of one of the Ministers, and as this statement contains much that is directly at variance with the truth, and as the false or cooked up part of the statement, and the published comments thereon, as well as the statement itself, are calculated to increase the bad feeling between Europeans and Maoris, and to further complicate the Native difficulties, I venture to point out the bad effect likely to arise by His Excellency allowing his present Ministers to be consulted on or allowed to have any information regarding negotiations with the Natives who are opposed to the Queen's rule in New Zealand. As no other person who was present at the meeting had arrived in town on the 15th instant excepting the Native clerk Pomare, the information must have been furnished to the Cross by one of the Ministers, or from the Native Office. If the information has been supplied to the Cross from the Native Office without the consent of Ministers, Ministers will naturally dismiss from office the clerk or clerks who gave the information ; failing this, His Excellency may fairly conclude that the Ministers are responsible for having caused a statement to be published calculated to injure the Public Service. His Excellency will doubtless have perceived the unfair treatment I have received at the hands of Ministers, by their examining in my absence a Native clerk employed by me in the matter, not because he was a Government clerk, but as a guide. With regard to the statement said to have been made by Pomare, that I was afraid, I beg to state that no thought of fear ever entered my mind during the time I was with the Natives, nor did I observe anything in their conduct calculated to make even a timid person afraid; on the contrary, they were particularly civil and hospitable to me. I have been much with the King Maoris and understand them sufficiently to know they are not treacherous to any person they allow to enter their pas in peace. I am not aware of any instance on record where they have been treacherous to those who have trusted themselves in their hands ; indeed, I should consider myself much safer in the hands of the worst King Maoris, even the Ngatiruanuis, than with such men as the Honorable Mr. Fox, who would not hesitate to stab the character of any person politically opposed to him, as he knows me to be, and as I believe he considers every honest man must be. Spencer M. Medley, Esq., Private Secretary, I have, &c, Government House, Auckland. J. R. Coopee.

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE ESCAPE OF THE MAORI PRISONERS FROM KAWATT.