D.—No. 6.

2. The voluminous nature of this Memorandum has hitherto prevented me from perusing it with sufficient care to make the remarks upon it which I should desire to do ; nor, indeed, am I yet in possession of the information I should want to enable me to do this in the manner I should think right. 3. But you will find from some enclosures, put up with this Memorondum, that my Responsible Advisers have expressed such extreme anger at my not sending it by the last mail, that I have not ventured to detain it longer. I can assure you that from the length of this Memorandum, and the Lite date at which it was forwarded to me, I had not time to send it before the last mail left. I have, Ac, The Eight Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., &c, &c, &c. G. Geet.

No. 53. Sir, — Government House, Auckland, 31st October, 1804. I have the honour to transmit for your information the copy of a memorandum which my Responsible Advisers have drawn up, in relation to my Despatch to you, No. 143, of the 7th of October, and which they have requested me to transmit to you. 2. With regard to their observations upon my wishing to be able to supply information on the financial state of the Colony to any gentleman I might ask to take office, I beg to state, that I believe in all previous cases of the resignation of a Ministry in this Colony the Assembly was sitting, and the financial condition of the Colony was well known. In the present case the Assembly was not sitting, and had not met since the 14th day of December last—that is, for nearly ten months ; no quarterly returns of revenue and expenditure had, I believe, been published ; and the financial condition of the Colony was not only unknown, but was, by the admission of Ministers, such as they thought ought not to be made known (although on this point I differed in opinion with them). I thought I should have to proceed to the South of New Zealand, to try to form a Ministry. Under these circumstances, 1 believed that any reasonable man whom I asked to form a Ministry, with the members of which he would have to agree on some line of policy, would have asked me what was the financial state of the Colony ; and I thought, not unnaturally, that in asking him to undertake so great a charge I should have been prepared to tell him this. My Ministers, however, distinctly advised me as follows : — " Ministers do not understand that it is the duty of either His Excellency or themselves to supply information as to the financial position of the Colony to any person who may profess a willingness to accept office ; indeed, they foresee probable evil consequences as the result of such a communication to persons not under responsibility." 3. With regard to the complaints made upon the subject of my not taking the advice of Ministers upon the subject of the confiscation of Native Lands, I feel quite confident that it will, upon inquiry, be admitted that I am not to blame in this matter, and that the papers already before you fully show that such is the case. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., &c, &c, &c. G. Geet.

No. 54. Sib, — Government House, Auckland, sth November, 1864. My Responsible Advisers have not requested me to transmit to you the enclosed memorandum, dated the 2nd inst. ; but as I should regret extremely that any injustice should be done to them, I have thought it right to enclose a copy of it to you for your information. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P., Ac, &c, &c. G. Geet.

No. 55. Sib, — Government House, Auckland, Gth November, 1864. My Responsible Advisers have requested me to transmit to you the enclosed Memorandum on my Despatch to you, No. 144, of the Bth of October last. 2. I have written a short memorandum in reply, a copy of which is herewith enclosed, of which I have the honour to request your consideration. 3. In it you will find that I have called attention to the fact that, when your instructions regarding the cession of lands by the natives were issued to me on the 26th of April last, one of the New Zealand Ministers, then in England, made the following promises to you on behalf of his colleagues :— " I take this opportunity of stating formally and officially that which I have previously had the honour of stating to Mr. Secretary Cardwell verbally, that there is nothing in the instructions of April 20th to Sir George Grey that does not represent the views of the Colonial Government in practically carrying into effect the policy of confiscation authorised by the Legislature in ' The New Zealand Settlements Act.' ###### " The Government never had any intention whatever of confiscating land in districts about which there could be any doubt as to the native inhabitants being in a state of rebellion. On my own behalf, therefore, and that of my colleagues, I can give to Mr. Cardwell a full assurance that the local Government will cordially co-operate with Sir G. Grey in carrying out that just and temperate policy toward the native race embodied in ' The New Zealand Settlements Act,' as limited in its operation by his instructions of April 26th." 4. The members of the Colonial Ministry who were in New Zealand at the time your instructions of the 26th of April reached me also published them in the New Zealand Government Gazette on the 30th of June last, thus notifying to all the inhabitants of New Zealand what were the instructions to which the Governor was bound to give effect.

15

TO THE EIGHT HON. EDWARD CARDWELL, M.P.