A.—No. 8

6

PAPERS RELATIVE TO

When the House of Representatives passed the Resolution on the 2nd October, requesting the18th Regiment to be retained, it was understood and implied that the distribution of the regiment was to be subject to the directions of the Governor, in accordance with the Queen's Colonial Regulations, in illustration of which understanding it was arranged, when the Resolution was passed, that troops should be sent to Wanganui. For His Excellency the Governor. E. W. Stafford. Note.—lt was subsequently intimated by the Officer Commanding the Troops in New Zealand, that troops could not be detached from the garrison at Auckland, where they were required to guard Imperial stores.

No. 7. Dr. Featherston to His Excellency the Governor. Sir, — Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 9th December, 1868. I have the honor to forward to your Excellency a memorial signed by 2GI inhabitants of tin* city, praying that your Excellency will be pleased to make an earnest appeal to the Governors of the Australian Colonies for the assistance of such of the Imperial forces as they may be able to detach for service in this Colony. I have, &e., His Excellency Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G. I. E. Feathehston, Superintendent.

Enclosure in No. 7. To His Excellency Sir George Ferci'son Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Governor and Commandcr-in- Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, and Vice-Admiral of the same. The Memorial of the undersigned Eesidents of the City of Wellington, in the Colony of New Zealand sheweth : —That many of your memorialists have resided iu this Colony for a long period, and nearly all of them during the Native rebellion that has been in progress since 18G0. That never since the foundation of the Colony has this island been in such imminent danger, never has there been a Greater sacrifice of life and property than has taken place during the last few weeks, and never has there existed such a general sense of insecurity, or such a state of unpreparednesa to meet an insurrection which is daily assuming larger dimensions. That the Colonial troops, consisting almost entirely of new levies, are necessarily inadequate at once to cope with so widespread an insurrection, aud your memorialists therefore pray your Excellency to make an earnest appeal to the Governors of the Australian Colonies for the assistance of such of the Imperial forces as they may be able to detach for service in New Zealand. And your memorialists will ever pray, &C., I. E. Featheiiston, M.G.A., &c, Alexander. J. Johnston, Judge of Supreme Court, John Johnston, M.L.C., And 258 other signatures.

No. S. Memobakotm bv Mr. Stafford. Wellington, lOtli December, 18GS. The accuracy of certain statements in this Memorial cannot be admitted. In reference, however, to its special object, it is necessary to notice the assumption which, by implication, it conveys, that if Imperial troops now in Australia were in New Zealand the loss of life and property to which it alludes would not have taken place. That loss of life and property has occurred in country districts, and notoriously in Poverty Bay, a district to which Imperial troops were never sent, even when there were 10,000 of them in New Zealand, although, while those troops were in the Colony, a serious insurrection, attended with considerable loss of life and property, occurred in that district for some weeks ; and in the neighbouring districts (which also Imperial troops never entered), for many months, the insurrection being suppressed by Colonial forces alone. Can it be maintained, then, when Imperial troops never entered these districts when open fightingwas going on, that if those in Australia had been in New Zealand, they would have guarded the settlers scattered in isolated houses over the Poverty Bay district from midnight surprise, and prevented men, women, and children, attacked in their beds, from being killed ? AVould they, either, on the West Coast, have prevented the surprise and murder in cold blood, without previous notice, of Cahil, Squires, and Clarke, with the murder of whom the insurrection on that coast commenced? With respect to the present and future protection of life and property, would Imperial troops, if obtained from Australia, be used so as to defend the country districts ? Would the Governor order them to be stationed in either the Poverty Bay or Patea districts ; or to take the field along the line, say, of the Waitotara River, and to operate as a field-force, so as to protect life and property in the country between that river and the town of Wanganui, which district is now specially menaced ? For His Excellency the Governor. E. W. Stafford.