E.—No. 1.

heavily on their minds. In addition to the conviction that no serious punishment would be inflicted upon them, the Colonial Secretary attributes their cheerful tone of mind chiefly to the very strong personal interest exhibited towards them by all the officers on board the hulk, and considers that the selection which was made of the gentlemen in charge, has been most fortunate. The conduct of the prisoners has been most unexceptionable during the whole period of their confinement. Only one instance of a refusal to conform to the established rules having been reported, the case being that of a chief, who refused for a couple of days to perform the usual ablutions. Tiie entire number of prisoners, at this date, is 197. A daily report of the general condition of the prisoners, and a daily medical report, have been regularly sent in to the Colonial Secretary by Mr. White and Dr. Sam. Specimens of these documents are appended. The Colonial Secretary begs to express his conviction that, under all the circumstances, no establishment of a similar nature in Her Majesty's dominions is better managed, nor would bear a closer inspection than the prison ship " Marion." William Fox. Auckland, »3rd May, 1864.

'■ The enclosed Idler, received from a well-informed native Chief, Ahipene Kaihu, on the Ith March last, will show the feeling prevailing amongst the natives. He states that the cause of Madness of the Waikato tribes, and of their determination to persist even to deatli in the course on which they have embarked, is their belief that the Chiefs of Waikato whom we have taken prisoners, and who air kept in dose confinement on board a hulk, will, when tin's war is ended, he transported to some island, where they will be imprisoned and then hanged.'' Ministers desire respectfully to record their opinion that Ahipene Kaihu cannot be regarded as either a trustworthy or disinterested authority in thi.s matter. He is a leading Chief of a tribe resident near Auckland, a largo number of which have actively engaged in the rebellion, and several of his immediate relations and neighbours were taken prisoners at Kangiriri, and are now on board the hulk. His object in coming to Auckland was partly to try to obtain the release of these men, and his letter to the Colonial Secretary was written with that express object. He was himself so far committed to the rebellion by overt acts in March, 1863, confirmed by his previous conduct for a year and a half before, as to induce His Excellency to suspend him from his office of Assessor, and though he has been since restored (under circumstances which need not be here recounted) there is little doubt that his sympathies arc with the rebels, though he feels it to be his interest to abstain from exhibiting them in any very open manner. His assertion as to the effect of the confinement of his relations and friends under these circumstances, made for the express purpose of influencing the Governor to release them, is not, in the opinion of Ministers, of the smallest value whatever. It is not, however, for the purpose of impugning Ahipene's testimony in this particular case, that Ministers have called His Excellency's attention to the subject, but rather to place on record their conviction that the testimony and opinions of natives ought to be regarded with the very greatest caution, particularly at this period of excitement in the native mind, and that neither this Govcnnm ut nor Her Majesty's Secretary of State ought to allow their views to be materially affected by them. Ah regards their opinions, there is no difficulty in finding, on any given question, any number of opinions on either side ; and as regards their testimony, it is so often at direct variance with truth, when they have any object in mis-statement, that Ministers very seldom dare in such cases to act upon it. The following are a few instances which seem to go far to justify the incredibility of Ministers ; they have all occurred within a very recent period, and might be increased to almost any extent if it were worth while to search the files of the Native Office :— In October last, Piriinona, an ordained native minister of the Church of England, residing at A uckland, where he had every opportunity of ascertaining the truth, both from the leading clergy of his Church and from the Native Office, a man believed to be of" the highest respectability, precisely the man whose testimony might be quoted with effect in an official report, went to the Bay of Islands and Hokianga, where his own relations, the Xgapuhi tribe, in no way connected with the rebellion, live. His object seems to have been to sow sedition amongst them, and he did so by circulating the greatesi falsehoods as to the progress of affairs in Waikato and our alleged resources there. This is a sample of his tales (which he put in writing) : That at Kerikeri there was a fight in which seven Maoris fell, and OIK thousand and eighty Pakehas were slain. The Maoris captured 150 tents, two cannons, and two iwl. powder; one officer was taken prisoner, and his name was Kamera. This, he gays, he heard from :: man who was in the engagement. A little further on he records the fight at Faparata : " The Maoris tired from where they were, they killed fifty soldiers, not one Maori was killed." It is unnecessary to observe that these stories are all but pure fabrications. A paper, laid before the House of Representatives, containing other statements of a similar character, is appended.* Whether the stories were his own invention or he only repeats the inventions of others.it is certain they were very generally believed and repeated, and but for the prompt interference of the local officers of Government would no doubt have done much mischief. They prove at once the want of veracity, and the unreasoning credulity of the Maori race ; and, considering Pirimona's previous character, convey a warning on the subject to those who may be induced to rely much ou Maori statements. Lgain, a gentleman in Cook's Straits describes, in a private letter, a visit of a native who had just been participating in the hostilities at Waikato. The man stated, at a public meeting of natives, that at Bangiaowhia, where he fought himself, the English "lost 1500 men; and that Bishop Selwyn was now second in command, and rode about with a sword at his side." Immediately after the evacuation of Paterangi. W. Thompson despatched his nephew, Waharoa, to the East Coast for recruits. This man carried a report that at Bangiriri we lost (iOOO men, the natives 140, and that we took no prisoners. A letter, signed with W. Thompson's own name, and believed to be authentic, was received by the Hay of Plenty natives immediately after the affair at Rangiawhia. It is now on the files of the Colonial Secretary's office. He describes the battle at some length, stating that he was present himself, and in command of a part of the native force. "Then," he says, " the cavalry came on ; I said to my men, ' Fire.' There was one volley. Every horse was killed. That was the end. General Cameron is now suing for peace." The real facts were that the natives routed, driven pell mell before an assault of OUT troops, followed for a great distance and severely cut up by our cavalry and Forest Bangers, and on the whole lost over 100 killed, besides many wounded, while our loss was quite trivial. Thompson gives the native loss us eight. "As for the Europeans," he says, "they had the bed of death to themselves." A missionary from the East Coast writes : " The most absurdly exaggerated reports are in circulation about our losses at Waikato. When the poor 'Avon' (a steam transport which had a trifling accident on a snag) was injured, she had on board 1000 men, all of whom perished." The General must have more lives than a cat. He was killed at Waikato, and £20 taken from each of his boots. He went in disguise as a minister to one of the pas (I think Paterangi.) The bell was rung, and he look his station in the pulpit, but counted each person who entered. As the karakia (Church service) was proceeding, a Maori noticed some part of the uniform under the surplice ; the alarm was given, and the unfortunate General was despatched. There are several other stories of the same character flying about, which are all implicitly believed.

9

RELATIVE TO MAORI PRISONERS.