».—No. 21

36

RETURN OF ARMS AND AMMUNITION

M.—No. 95. Copy of a Letter from Captain Biggs to Captain Holt. (No. 340-3.) Sir,— Napier, 26th October, 1867. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, number and date as per margin, in which I am directed to appoint two men at 2s. a clay each to keep the arms in proper order in the Tokomaru districts. I have to request you to inform me how these men are to be paid, and from whom I am to obtain the money. The only way in which an inspection of arms on the coast can be secured without some person being specially appointed, is that the Resident Magistrate of the district be requested to inspect the arms as he is travelling along the coast. I have, &c, The Under Secretary, Defence Office, Reginald Newton Biggs, Wellington. Captain, commanding Colonial Forces.

Ko. 340-3, Oct. 28, 1867.

M.—No. 96. Copy of a Letter from Captain Holt to Captain Biggs. (No. 3-3.) Colonial Defence Office, Sir, — Wellington, 4th January, 1868. In reply to the first portion of your letter of the 26th October last, I am directed to inform you that the money to pay the men whom you employ to clean the arms in the Tokomaru District can bo obtained from Captain Withers, at Napier, who has been instructed to issue it to you on receiving the necessary vouchers duly signed and certified. I have, &c Captain Biggs, commanding Colonial Forces, J. Holt, Poverty Bay. Under Secretary.

M.—No. 97. Copy of a Letter from Captain Biggs to Captain Holt. Sir, — Poverty Bay, 16th January, 1868. In accordance with your instructions, conveyed in your letter of 28th September, 1867, No. 340-3, I appointed two men at Tokomaru, on the 3rd of November last, to take charge of the Government arms at that place. The pay was to be 2s. per diem. The men have requested me to send them some money ; I have therefore to request you to inform me how they are to be paid. They complain of being badly off for clothes. I havo, &c, The Under Secretary, Colonial Defence Reginald Newton Biggs, Office, Wellington. Captain, commanding Colonial Forces.

M.—No. 98. Copy of a Letter from Captain Holt to Captain Biggs. (No. 72-3.) Colonial Defence Office, Sir,— Wellington, sth February, 1868. In reply to your letter of the 16th ultimo, as to the payment of the men in charge of Government arms, &c, at Tokomaru, I am directed to refer you to my letter of the 4th January, No. 3-3, in which you were informed that Captain Withers, Paymaster at Napier, would issue the pay to you on receiving the necessary vouchers duly signed and certified. I have, &c, Captain Biggs, commanding Colonial Forces, J. Holt, Poverty Bay. Under Secretary.

M.—No. 99. Copy of a Letter from Captain Biggs to Captain Holt. Sir,— Poverty Bay, 29th June, 1868. I have the honor to inform you that, owing to conversation between the Hon. the Defence Minister and myself relative to the collecting the arms in the hands of the Natives into certain places, there to be under the charge of a Native, I appointed Hone Hays, a half-caste, to attend to the arms at Tuparoa ; he commenced collecting them on the 20th of March last. At first the Natives objected to having all the arms in one place, so Hone Hays went to the different pas and cleaned the arms there, and had them kept in one whare in each pa. The Natives have now agreed to let them be removed to Tuparoa. I find that Henare Potae informed me wrong as to the number of arms he had got together, for on inspection there are only 66 Government arms in his store; I therefore told one of the men in charge that ho would not be required after the end of this month. Henare Potae accounts for the difference in the following way. When he told me he had got 113, he reckoned as got those which the people had promised to give in; when he sent for them, the Natives would not part with them. I