A.—No. 1

12

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW

15. A large expenditure has also been saved to Great Britain, the settlers have learned with what safety they can rely upon themselves. The Natives will henceforth respect more fully their European neighbours, who they have found so willing to take the field and so efficient in it. The fact of the two races having fought side by side to enforce Her Majesty's authority and repress outrages, has shown the Native race that their Queea has confidence in them, and that their European fellow subjects trust them, whilst both races will feel that they mutually recognize that they have common interests. All these circumstances united afford the best guarantees for the future peace of the country and the happiness and unanimity of Her Majesty's subjects of all races. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. G. GREY.

No. 12. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8., to the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. (No. 156.) Government House, Wellington, Sir, — 11th December, 1865. In your Despatch No. 50, of the 26th July last, it is stated in consequence of letters received by Lord de Grey that I had made an improper and unfair use of a private letter from Sir D. Cameron. I had hoped that this accusation publicly made would have been as publicly retracted when further information had been received, but I regret to perceive that Lord de Grey in a letter to you from the War Office, of the 20th September last, is so far from retracting his previously expressed opinion after receiving further information, that he expresses a still stronger opinion against me by saying—that he is not of opinion that my knowing that Sir D. Cameron had transmitted to Lord de Grey a letter which His Lordship received and has inferentially approved of, containing charges against myself and my Responsible Advisers, rendered it necessary for me to make known to them the contents of the letter in question. 2. Thus I am again made in a public document to appear to have been guilty of the dishonorable act of having made a wrong and unfair use of a private letter. 3. This is a matter upon which I cannot allow any doubt to rest. I therefore say on my part that I acted honorably and properly in the matter, and that the line of conduct Sir D. Cameron would have had me adopt would have been dishonorable and improper. 4. On the first part of the question: If my subordinate officer, but still an officer of high rank, writes me a letter in which he accuses me of public crimes which would render me altogether unfit to serve Her Majesty, and marks that letter ' private,' he has in my opinion forfeited all right to have it treated as a private communication. It rests with me, the accused man, to make it public if I think proper : if I believe he will send his accusations to Her Majesty's Government, as Sir D. Cameron did in this case, I have if possible a still greater right to treat his letter as a public document. I assert confidently that Sir D. Cameron in making such gross accusations against me privately, to Lord de Grey, one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and His Lordship in privately receiving them, were the wrong doers, and not myself in treating these accusations as having been publicly made, and in meeting them as having been so made. 5. On the second part of the question —whether it was necessary for me even if I knew that Sir D. Cameron had transmitted the letter in question to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, to communicate its contents to my Responsible Advisers, —I still say with due respect to opinions which have been expressed to the contrary, that it was necessary for me to have done so. 6. If I had wished to give Sir D. Cameron an opportunity of recalling his letter he shut me out from doing so by sending a copy of it home before I could communicate with him; and lam quite satisfied that every rule of right required me not to withhold from men between myself and whom the most friendly relations existed, and with whom I was in constant intercourse regarding the very questions raised in General Cameron's letters, a knowledge of the nature of the