A.—No. 1.

54

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW

No. 23. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. (No. 29.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord,— New Zealand, 9th March, 1869. In my Despatch No. 18, of the Bth February ultimo, I mentioned that I had felt it to he my duty to bear my testimony to the excellent conduct of the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. I sent a copy of my communication on this subject, addressed to Major-General Sir T. Chute, to the Commandant at Auckland (Lieut.-Colonel Elliot), and I now enclose a copy of his reply. 2. It will be gratifying to observe the cordial terms existing between the officers and men of the last British regiment left in New Zealand and their Colonial fellow-subjects of all classes. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. G. i l. BOWEN.

Enclosure in No. 23. Lieut.-Colonel Elliot to His Excellency the Goyernoe. Sib,— Auckland, KZ., 22nd February, 18G9. In acknowledging your Excellency's letter of the 13th inst., I trust you will permit me, on behalf of the battalion under my command, to offer you our best thanks for the very flattering manner in which you have referred to the services and conduct of this battalion in your Excellency's communication under reply. Having, personally, merely watched the ripening of the fruit sown by my predecessor in this command, Lieut.-Colonel Eocke, I considered myself at liberty the more warmly to congratulate this battalion on the goodwill with which their conduct has inspired those with whom they have been associated; and for the same reason I am now emboldened very respectfully to submit to your Excellency, copy of the orders in which I have drawn attention to the letter conveying the expression of your Excellency's approval. I have &c, Geoeoe A. Elliot, Lieut.-Colonel, Commanding 2nd Bat., 18thEoyal Irish Eegiment, and Commandant in N.Z. His Excellency Sir George F. Bowen, G.C.M.G.

District Orders, 22nd February, 1869. 1. Tlic Commandant has much pleasure in publishing in orders the following letter which his Excellency the Governor has done him the honor to address to him. Regimental Orders, 22nd February, 1869. 1. In inviting attention to His Excellency's letter of the 13th inst., Lieut.-Colonel Elliot deems it but just to the men who now compose the 2nd Battalion ISth Eoyal Irish Eegiment to avail himself of this mode of placing on record the high character which they have earned for their regiment in the towns in which they are at present or have recently been quartered. During the past year he has had the pleasure of receiving from His Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand and Lichfield, and from His Honor the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, their personal assurances of the esteem in which the detachments at New Plymouth and Napier were then held. The very general demonstrations of regret which attended the departure of the two companies from Wellington evinced that the people of that City indorsed the encomiums with which His Excellency the Governor was at that time pleased to honor Captain Dawson's detachment; and newspaper notices have since shown that at Wanganui the same companies continue to merit the regard of their fellow-townsmen. In Auckland, the excellent conduct of the head-quarters of the battalion is constantly praised by the citizens, and has, on all suitable occasions, been testified to by the Eesident Magistrate and Commissioner of Police. But it is not alone because of the elevated positions of the witnesses who have thus, unsolicited, come forward to do honor to the corps, nor because, being themselves men famed for manliness and social worth, it is the more to be prized, that the Commanding Officer congratulates the battalion on possessing their approbation. He is sure that all under his command will derive even a higher gratification from the feeling that, as the last British troops which it is probable will ever be quartered in New Zealand, they have, by their conduct, erected here a monument worthy the traditions of the noble army to which they belong, and an enduring record to which the Irish colonist may refer with pride, should the ignorant wrongly attribute to his nation any sympathy with the disloyal acts perpetrated in the name of his race by the wretched dupes of designing aliens. G. A. Elliot, Lieut.-Colonel.