E.—No. 1.

No. (i(i. MEMOEANDUM of His Excellency, respecting Location of Xative Prisoners and Families at Kawau. In reply to the Ministerial Memorandum of the 12th instant, upon the subject of locating the native prisoners and their families on Kawau, the Governor has only to say that he will give every facility and aid in his power in carrying out the proposed plan. Government House, Auckland, 19th July. LBB4. G. Grey.

No. 67. Despatch from the Governor to the Secretary of State, No. 101. [Publication declined by His Excellency.]

No. 68. MEMORANDUM of Ministers respecting His Excellency's Despatch to Seobbtabt of State, No. 101. Ministers have read His Excellency's despatch No. 101, on the subject of the rebel prisoners on board the hulk. His Excellency states, in paragraph 3, that since the report made to him by Drs. Mouatt and McKinnon, he believes that his " Responsible Advisers have now placed the hulk in a satisfactory •state." Ministers think it their duty to themselves to state that His Excellency is entirely Under a misapprenension in supposing that anything has been done on board the hulk in consequence of the visit of Messrs. Mouatt and McKinnon to the ship. Ministers were never favoured by His Excellency with any statement of the particulars in which these gentlemen "reported" the ship to be defective, nor have they ever situ the " Eeport" so often referred to by His Excellency. Nothing has been done on board the hulk except on the recommendation of the Colonial Surgeon in charge, and the little that lias been done since .Messrs. Mouatt and McKinnon visited it had been ordered to lie carried into effed a considerable time before their visit, as those gentlemen would probably have discovered had they made their visii with the sanction of the Colonial Government, when fuller opportunities of ibtaining information would have been given them than they would seem to have possessed. Ministers think it due to themselves that His Excellency's misapprehension on this point should lie corrected, since if they allowed it to pass it would amount to an admission that the ship had, previously to the visit referred to, not been a proper place for the detention of the prisoners, a position which they have always denied and still do, respectfully but mosi decidedly controvert. They would respectfully requesi that a, copy of this memorandum be forwarded by tins mail to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. 2nd August, iMil. William Fox.

No. G9. [Despatches reprinted front English Parliamentary Papers.] DESPATCH from G-overnor Sir Gboegb Grey, X.C.8., to His Grace the Duke or Newcastle, K.G. Government House, Auckland. April (i. 1864 My Loud Duke, — Tour Grace is aware that upon the 20th of November last ls:J natives were taken prisoners at Itsingiriri. Amongst these men were some chiefs of rank and consequence. They have since been kept in confinement on board the hulk "Marion,"' in the harbour oi' Auckland, and up to this date nothing has been decided with regard to their fate. 2. 1 have repeatedly pressed upon my Eesponsible Advisers the propriety of coming to some . decision upon this subject. I believe that the uncertainty which hangs over the course intended to be pursued with regard to these prisoners, and consequently with regard to any other prisoners we take, induces a spirit of desperation amongst the native population, which, whilst it is .sad to see, is quite unnecessary, as I am satisfied that although the Colonial Ministry seem unable to make up their minds as to the course they should advise me to pursue, they wish to see the prisoners generously and leniently dealt with. :!. The enclosed letter, received from a well informed native chief on the -lth of March last, will show the feeling prevailing amongst the natives. He states that the cause of the sadness of the Waikato tribes, and of their determination to persist, even to death, in the course on which they have .embarked, is their belief that the chiefs of Waikato whom we have taken prisoners, and who are kept in close confinement on board a hulk, will, when the war is ended, be transported to some island where they will be imprisoned, and then hanged. 4. I also enclose copies of a correspondence between myself and my Eesponsible Advisers in relation to this subject, from which your Grace will see that upon the 9th ultimo they undertook that, upon the return of the Colonial Secretary from Kaipara, they would be prepared to take the case of these prisoners into consideration, with a view to immediate and final action; but as yet nothing has been done in this matter. I have, &C, His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G., &c, &c. G. Grkv. P.S.—Since writing this Despatch I have received from my Responsible Advisers a memorandum, a copy of which is enclosed, advising me as to the course they think mould be pursued in regard to the rebel prisoners. When 1 have had time to consider this memorandum 1 will reply to the Colonial

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RELATIVE TO MAORI PRISONERS.