NEW ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

67

A.—No.

The Native Minister has visited the leading chiefs of the northern Ngapuhi and Earawa tribes, and discussed questions with them affecting the welfare of their people. Some of the chiefs reverted to Hongi's visit to England; to the countenance he received from the King; the subsequent occupation of the islands by the British Government; the continued loyalty of most of the chiefs, and their desire to be always recognized as dutiful subjects of Her Majesty, upon whose countenance and protecting care they confidently rely, having, as expressed by Hone Mohi, (one of their influential chiefs at Hokianga,) given full proof of their devotion and loyalty by shedding their blood in defence of the Queen's sovereignty during the Heke War of 1845. Hone Mohi remarked: "We have sealed our adherence to the Treaty of Waitangi and our regard "" for the Queen with our blood. It is not through money that we have done so. Our brave men have " fallen, without money or reward, to carry out the obligations entered into by our old chiefs with "' England's representatives." Donald McLean.

No. 37. Copy of a DESBATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. (No. 7.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord, — New Zealand, 13th January, 1870. At the request of my Constitutional Advisers, I have the honor to transmit herewith the enclosed Ministerial Memorandum, respecting your Lordship's Despatch No. 115, of the 7th October ultimo. 2. This document has only just reached me, by express, in the Gulf of Hauraki, (six hundred miles from Wellington,) where I am engaged on an official visit (as I have already reported elsewhere,) to the gold fields and the neighbouring Native Districts. 3. Mr. McLean, the Minister for Defence and Native Affairs, who is with me here, requests me to state that he entirely concurs with the views and arguments of his colleagues. 1. In order to save this month's mail, I am constrained to forward the enclosed Memorandum immediately, and without any special comments of my own. However, this is probably of little moment, seeing that in my general report of the 7th December, 1868, and in several preceding and subsequent despatches,* I have submitted at length the views which I have held, in common with General Chute, Commodore Lambert, and the other Imperial Officers in this part of the British Empire, respecting the value of the moral support of a small garrison of the Queen's Troops, and concerning all other questions affecting the safety and welfare of this Colony. I have, &c, The Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. G. E. BOWEN.

Enclosure in No. 37. Memorandum by Mr. Gisborne. Wellington, 7th January, 1870. Ministers have read Earl Granville's Despatch No. 115, dated the 7th of October last, communicating the decision of tho Imperial Government to remove forthwith the 18th Eegiment, the only regiment left in New Zealand, and have to express the great regret with which they have learned this decision and the grounds on which it is based. Earl Granville takes some exception to having only received, when this decision was formed, the Address to Major-General Sir Trevor Chute, and the Act pledging the Colony to contribute towards the support of the regiment during its temporary detention pending the decision of Her Majesty's Government, and states that no pledge has been given that the Colony will accept that decision respecting the terms on which the troops are to be finally stationed in New Zealand. Ministers cannot conceive how any misunderstanding could have arisen on this point. The temporary detention of the regiment, pending the decision of Her Majesty's Government, was obviously intended to be followed by negotiations with that Government as to the terms on which it could be stationed here for the future. His Excellency's Despatches, the Memoranda of Ministers, the debates in the Legislature, all of which went by the same mail that took the Address to Sir Trevor Chute, would have, it was thought, fully shown this to be the case. The Eesolutions of the two Houses formally pledging themselves to that course, and requiring Commissioners to be sent to England for the purpose of negotiation, were passed a few days afterwards, and went by the next mail. It is to be regretted that the Imperial Government did not, before they formed a decision, await those proposals, to the absence of which Lord Granville refers, and the arrival of the Commissioners in their support; Ministers earnestly trust that the Imperial Government, when they are in possession of those definite proposals, and of the

* Already published in the Imperial Parliamentary Papers.