A—No. 1;

78

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OE NEW

2. It will be remembered, of course, that tlie Hauhau rebels taken in arms against the Crown some vears asro on the East Coast of this Island, were sent to the Chatham Islands long before the commencement of my connection with New Zealand. I returned to the Seat of Government only two days ago, but I hope to be able shortly to forward further information (in addition to that contained in the papers herein enclosed) respecting that subject, and the other matters referred to by your Lordship. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. G. E. BOWEN.

Enclosure in ]^o. 34. Memorandum by Mr. Stafford. Wellington, 21st May, 1569. Lord Gra>"yille's Despatch No. 30, of the 26th of February last, states that the information given in the Governor's recent Despatches respecting the disturbances in New Zealand does not convey to his Lordship a distinct idea of those disturbances nor of the causes which led to the temporary successes of the Maoris, and then refers to statements made on the subject "in various quarters," and requires information and explanation in reference thereto. In order to recal to memory all essential information on the matters to which Earl Granville adverts, statements have been required from the Native and Defence Offices, which are enclosed herewith. The whole may be gathered from official documents forwarded from time to time, by successive Governors, to the Colonial Office. It may be generally observed that those who may have referred the origin of existing disturbances to any recent date or event have misled Her Majesty's Government. The hostility of several sections of the Maori population has been continuous for a long period, during which acts of violence have never been intermitted for many months at a time. The recent atrocities on the East and West Coasts constitute the crisis of the same war in respect of which Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the 14th July, 1864, in his place in Parliament, spoke as follows : — " He did not see how England could with justice throw the whole responsibility of the war on the " Colony. The Home Government had approved it, and were so far responsible for it." The honorable character of the war, so far as the Colonists are concerned, has been repeatedly admitted in words by successive Secretaries of State, and was most emphatically recognized in action, when the Imperial Government deliberately prosecuted it with an army of ten thousand British .soldiers. Unhappily it was not concluded by the Imperial authorities, but, all external support having been withdrawn, the Colonists are still compelled to strive against the same obstinate hostility which exhausted the patience of the Imperial Government, and seems to have frozen their sympathies with the Colony. Another point in the Despatch No. 30 demands some general observation. It is easy, though scarcely considerate, for persons whose ignorance, were they silent, would be pardonable on the score of their distance from the scene of conflict, to censure the defensive efforts of this Colony suffering under difficulties without any modern parallel, and to pronounce, after the evil event, what skould have been done to avert it. The tone of an influential portion of the English press —apparently one of the " various quarters" whence Earl Granville has gathered the statements to which he refers —is that of a spectator in safety on the shore, watching with curiosity the struggles of a half-drowning man, tendering advice and reproof, but refusing to stir to help, and arguing that it is for the advantage of the sufferer to go through the watery ordeal unaided. The defensive arrangements of a young Colony cannot be judged by the standard applicable to States long established. The Colonists, taking with them to strange shores the habits of an old civilization, have not at the same time the accumulated means of centuries to bear them up in times of protracted warfare. They depend from year to year on their personal industry, which, if the community is to exist at all, must be constantly exerted in peaceful avocations. Any considerable or permanent diversion of industrial power to unproductive labour must bring early disaster, and rapidly exhaust the source of power altogether. The greatest prudence is required in adjusting the proportion in which industry is withdrawn from time to time Irom productive pursuits, so as to afford, on the one hand, moderate security for life and property, yet not, on the other hand, to undermine the foundations of property itself and destroy the means of life. Liberal allowances should therefore be made for those on whom rests the responsibility of that adjustment. More especially should such consideration be extended when, as in the case of New Zealand, the young community has been compelled against its will to assume the position abdicated by the parent state in relation to a foreign race, and to endeavour to fulfil treaty engagements contracted by the empire. New Zealand could not possibly have maintained a defensive attitude with a standing army sufficient to make insurrection impossible. The Colony must be content to bear the censures of unreflecting critics on the inadequacy of its ordinary means of defence, and must meet extraordinary emergencies by extraordinary exertions. These observations are offered in mere justice to His Excellency the Governor, whom Earl Granville appears disposed to censure, but with no wish to continue a discussion which is exhausted. Earl Granville asks for information respecting an alleged offer of a reward of £1,000 for the capture of the chief Titokowaru. The report which has reached the Colonial Office is exactly true, as also the inference drawn by his Lordship, that it was implied in the offer that the reward would be given for the body of Titokowaru alive or dead. Ministers regret if this offer has not been reported in the copious minutes of events furnished to His Excellency for transmission by every mail. It is right now to add that a similar reward on the same terms has been offered for the body of Te Kooti, the leader in the outrages on the East Coast.