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It is clear, therefore, that every effort must be used to conciliate and strengthen our friendly relations with those tribes who support us, and I trust that his Excellency will be pleased, uuder all the circumstances, to favour me with an authority for incurring such expenditure, and making such general arrangements for the preservation and peace of the Taranaki district, as the peculiar circumstances of the case may urge upon myself, his Honor the Superintendent, and the local authorities of that place to adopt, and such an authority becomes the more necessary lest any delay in making arrangements might be too late to obtain the object which it is earnestly desired may be accomplished. I have, &c., Donald M'Lean, Land Commissioner. The Honorable % The Colonial Secretary.

(Copy.) Land Commissioner's Office, Auckland, Ist Nov. 1855. Sir, — In the present unprotected state of the European inhabitants of Taranaki, and taking into consideration the unfortunate manner in which our faithful ally and native assessor " Rawiri Waiana" and six of his followers were killed, without any just provocation, by relatives and members of his own tribe. I beg to submit that the time has arrived when some steps should be taken, for the better security and defence of the inhabitants of that Province, as natives who would be guilty of destroying their own friends in such a cruel manner, could not be relied on for much forbearance towards the Europeans under any excitement or conflict that might arise hereafter among themselves. It seems very desirable, therefore, that not only as an act of humanity and justice towards the natives themselves, but as a protection to innocent Europeans, who may, notwithstanding the vigilance of the authorities, become inadvertently involved in those quarrels, that some precautionary measures should be adopted to restrain the natives from again committing such acts of violence as recently took place in the immediate vicinity of the English settlement. The limited resources of the New Plymouth Province, its distance and isolated position, the numerous native tribes that surround it, the constant accessions they are receiving to their numbers from different parts ol these islands, the consequent difficulty of acquiring land in sufficient quantities to introduce European settlers in greater numbers to equalise the races, the warlike character of the natives as compared with the peaceable industrious class of English agricultural settlers stationed there, the difficulty of placing troops there under any sudden emergency that might arise requiring their presence, the uselessness of having a smaller number of military than would over-awe and control the more turbulent tribes, are all subjects that have been so fully brought under the notice of the Government at different times that it appears unnecessary for me to dwell at any length upon them ; but I feel it is my duty, as the officer deputed to enquire into and report on the late disturbance, to bring under his Excellency's notice what I have already indicated verbally to his Honor the Superintendent, the local authorities, and some of the settlers at that place, viz.,—that, there are certain resources within the Province which, if judiciously applied, with the aid of, and under the sanction and co-operation of the General Government, might be adopted without creating much suspicion or alarm among the natives, and its