E.—No. 5

I should estimate the loss of the enemy to be between twenty and thirty in killed and wounded seven of whom I myself distinctly saw shot dead and dragged into the bush by the rebels. I have, &c, E. McKenna, Color Sergeant, 65th Regiment. W. Hutchins, Lieutenant-Colonel, Assistant Military Secretary.

No. 25. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL CAMERON, C.8., TO GOVEBNOB SIB GEORGE GBEY, K.CB. Head Quarters, Queen's Redoubt, 12th September, 1863. Sir — I have the honor to forward for your Excellency's information, the copy of a report from Captain Greaves, Acting Deputy Assistant Quarter-master General, who acted as guide to the party under the command of Major Blyth, 40th Regiment, which proceeded from tho Queen's Redoubt to Tuakau on the 9th instant, and who subsequently accompanied the party under Lieutenant Warren, 65th Regiment, from that Post to Camerontown, in search of men dead and missing, after the engagement on the 7th instant. Captain Greaves' sketch, which I also enclose, shows the track taken by Captain Swift's party from Tuakau to Cameron, and the scene of the skirmish of the 7th September, 1863. I have, <fee, D. A. Cameron, Lieutenant-General. Governor Sir George Grey, K.CB. Enclosure to No. 25. captain g. c. gbeaves to the deputy quabteb-mastee general, queen's EEDOUBT. Queen's Redoubt, 10th September, 1863. Sir — I have the honor to report for the information of the Lieutenant-General Commanding, that I guided a party of the 40th Regiment, under Major Blyth, through the bush to Tuakau yesterday. We reached the Redoubt at about 12 p.m., and I immediately accompanied a party of one hundred men of the 65th Regiment, under Lieutenant Warren, to Cameron, on the Waikato—■ the scene of the late Maori attack upon the friendly natives' pa—to search for three soldiers of the 65th Regiment (one of them known to be dead), who had been left in the bush in that vicinity, on the occasion of the fight between Captain Swift's party and the Maoris, on Monday last. We proceeded through the bush, on the track likely to be taken by the missing men, to Cameron, where we arrived at 3.30 p.m. On the spot where the fight took place we found the body of Private Grace, 65th Regiment He had a gun-shot wound in the face, and cut from a tomahawk in the chin. The body had been covered over with fern by the party when they left it, and so we found it. We went down to the pa, which is a miserable affair, and totally incapable of being defended, being completely commanded by a hill close to it, and constructed simply of stakes driven into the ground, about two or three inches apart, and tied with supple-jack at the top. The house and whares inside the pa had been completely gutted, and all kinds of property were scattered over the place. I went with a few men down to the bank of the river, about 100 yards below the pa. The ground was strewn with bran and ( corn, the former partially burnt. We found a canoe at the landing place, which I ordered the men not to destroy—fortunately, as it turned out afterwards, for it proved the means of saving one of the wounded men, who was close to us in the bush while we were there, and who came up to Tuakau at night in the canoe. We returned to the scene of the fight, of which I enclose a sketch ; fires were still smouldering and a quantity of potatoes were on tho ground, showing that the enemy had been there very lately We then proceeded to examine the country in the direction in which the missing men were last seen to go, but found no traces of them. The bush and fern were so dense, that we gave up the search as hopeless, and determined to return. We left the ground at 6 o'clock, just as it was getting dark, and, carrying the body with us, we returned to Tuakau, reaching the Redoubt at midnight, the distance being between eight and nine miles. On arrival we found that one of the missing men had come up the river in a canoe. From the number of fires, sleeping places, and the extent of ground covered by the Maoris, I am satisfied that there cannot have been less than 200 when they were attacked by poor Captain Swift's party, and it is wonderful, considering the nature of the ground, how in the face of such a superior force this party, only 28 in number, at the end, succeeded in keeping the enemy in check

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