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1883. NEW ZEALAND.

NATIVE AFFAIRS AND THE AMNESTY (PAPERS RESPECTING).

Presented to both Souses of the General Assembly oy Command of Sis Excellency.

No. 1. His Excellency the Govehnoe to the Secretaey of State for the Coiootes. My Loed, — Government House, Wellington, 19th February, 1883. As regards Native affairs in this Colony, I have the honour to report that matters at present appear to be progressing satisfactorily and peaceably. 2. Acting on the advice of my Ministers, and in accordance with a policy approved by the Legislature of the Colony during last session, I have issued a Proclamation (of which I transmit copies) granting an Amnesty to disaffected Maoris. 3. In further pursuance of the same policy, I have this day granted permission to Te Whiti and Tohu to return to their own home at Parihaka, where they were arrested last year, under circumstances which were duly reported to 3 rour Lordship's predecessor. 4. My Ministers have also decided on re-opening the port of Kawhia, on the coast of the King Country, which has remained closed for about twenty years. Kawhia is of special importance as being the only good harbour on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, between Manukau and Wellington, and considerable advantage both to Maoris and Europeans may be expected to arise from its opening. 5. I will report further to your Lordship on these matters by the next mail. I have, &c, Wm. F. Deummokd Jeevois. The Eight Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

No. 2. His Excellency the Govehnob to the Seceetaey of State for the Colonies. My Loed. — Government House, Wellington, 24th March, 1888. With reference to my Despatch No. 13, of the 19th February, 1 have the honour to forward herewith a memorandum by Mr. Bryce, the Minister for Native Affairs, respecting the course recently followed by the Government of this colony in regard to the Maoris. This memorandum was presented to me previously to the date of my despatch; but I wished, before transmitting it to your Lordship, to become better acquainted than I then was with one or two of the matters to which it referred. 2. I also forward a memorandum from the Premier, Mr. Whitaker, with regard to the policy of the Government respecting Natives, with special reference to recent legislation and the action which has been taken thereon. 3. Tour Lordship will gather from these papers that affairs are progressing satisfactorily, and I see no reason to differ from my Ministers in their view of the present relations of the Government of this colony with the Native race. Those relations seem to be undoubtedly of a much more friendly character than have existed for many years, and tend to the solution of difficulties which have troubled most Governments here in the past, and at the same time to the progress of civilization amongst the Maoris. 4. The setting apart of ample reserves of land, which, on the recommendations of the Eoyal Commissioner, Sir William Fox, have been appropriated for the Natives, and which at their request are being let for their advantage by the Government —thus excluding speculators from dealing with these reserves —appears to assure the Natives that their just rights will be respected. 5. With regard to the Amnesty, which, as stated in my former despatch, I have lately proclaimed, a question has arisen whether any —and if any, what—Maoris should be excluded from the benefits of it. The possibility of thus limiting it had been contemplated in the Amnesty Act of last session; and some people, more especially on the east coast of the North Island, were of opinion that the Chief Te Kooti, who directed the Natives in the savage attack on Poverty Bay, in the year 1868, should not be pardoned. It appeared to me, however, that, although the deeds of Te Kooti, at the time I refer to, could net be defended on the ground that they were legitimate acts of war, it was infinitely better, in

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