E.—No. 1.

He observes that the Assistant Law Officer states in his Memorandum of the 28th of October: — " I was desirous above all to discover the murderers of the Merediths, father and son ; and having reasons, from information I had received, to suspect Tarahawaiki of being concerned in that outrage, with Ngatiapakura, under Taati, I tried every plan I could think of to obtain some evidence, even trying to get. privately, some of the other prisoners to turn Queen's evidence, but I did not succeed." •i # • * * # • • • '• I have not anything, and could never obtain anything which would be <:\ idence against Tarahawaiki for this murder." Prom this the Governor gathers, ho thinks rightly, that the Assistant Law Officer suspected and probably still suspects Tarahawaiki of having been engaged in the murder of the Merediths, and \":>.< other of the prisoners, and therefore almost certainly Tarahawaiki himself, knows thai he was so suspected, and that attempts were being made to procure evidence against him. From the Memorandum of Mr. Munro of the Native Office, the Governor gathers that he had noted down that Wi Tura or Tarahawaiki, Te Tapihana of Xgatihikairo, and Tamati Te. Hauma, it was said, killed Meredith and his son. Ministers have made a mistake !;• Baying that i;i his Memorandum of (he 2Cth instant the Governor states that Mr. Mackay " lohl me on Friday la« 1 thai circumstances hud come to his knowledge which led him to believe that Tapihana was one of the murderers of the Merediths." The mistake is that the word " recently" is omitted. The expression the Governor used was "had recently come to his knowledge." Ministers have already informed the Governor thai a formal official announcement had been made to the Native prisoners (who had been collected for the purpose), by the Colonial Secretary, in the ence of the Premier, to the effect —" Thai when the time should arrive and peace be made, they would nol be tried or punished, bui allowed to return to Waikato, excepi any who had committed iurder; they would be tried and punished according to lav ." .! blisters mm ■ ha "No Minister ever suspected, or kne\s thai i: was suspected in the Official Departments, that ;• Tapihana or Tarahawaiki we i implicated in th ■ ■■ of the Merediths." The Governor believes from the abovi tl ■ was quite justified in saving that, looking to the language the Governmeni had used to the Native prisoners regarding those of them who might have committed murder, it would have been a measure of the most ordinary precaution before letting those men loose on the Kawau, to have instituted inquiries in the Native Office as to whether any of them, or which of them, lay under suspicion of having committed murder, and in adding thai ii was clear to Br he had been made aware of the language used by the Government to the prisoners, and of what had been told to Mr. Mackay and Mr. Munro regarding Tapihana, thai the motives and position of the escaped prisoners was very different from what he previously thought they were. He further stated thai whal he wished to arrive at was a conclusion as to what it was now best to i o, and upon this poini he would still be much obliged to Ministers for their advice. Government House. Auckland, Sth November, 1864. (t. Gbet.

No. 60. MEMOBANDTTM of .Ministkks relative to Suspected Murderers among the escaped Prisoners. Ministers beg to acknowledge His Excellency's Memorandum of the Bth instant, on the subject of the escaped prisoners. Ministers having pointed out to His Excellency that the fact of Mr. Mackaj having heard something on the 18th of September, was no ground for His Excellency's supposing that they knew rt on the 2nd of August, Mis Excellency now changes his line of argument, and contends that because Mr. r'enton, in December, L 863, suspected that Tarahawaki was a murderer, but found, on full investigation, that there was no evidence to support his suspicion, therefore Tarahawaki, in August, ISO!*, believed that he was suspected of murder, and not only ran away from Kawau, but induced upwards of 200 other persons who were not suspected of anything to run away also; and because Ministers did not wuspect what the Assistant Law Adviser, after a full investigation declared there was no ground for {inspecting, therefore they were guilty of criminal neglect, and entirely responsible forTarahawaiki and the 200 running away, and still more for having given them a motive not to conic back. Ministers confess themselves altogether at a loss to perceive that reasoning of this sort justifies I ■■ charge which His Excellency lias made against them in his late Memoranda on tin's subject. 11 is Excellency goes on to justify bis having said in one of these Memoranda that " it would have been a measure of the most ordinary precaution, before, letting these men loose at Kawau, to have ituted enquiries at the Native Office as to whether any and which of them lay under suspiciou of having committed murder." Ministers beg to observe that this is not the point in dispute between Hi» Excellency and themselves. Ministers complained in their last Memorandum that His Excellency had asserted as a fact within his own knowledge that they had not instituted any inquiries into the probability of there being murderers among the prisoners. Ministers denied His Excellency's assertion, and gave ample proof of the correctness of that denial. His Excellency, who had in a previous Memorandum expressed his readiness to acknowledge an error if told of it, does not now do so. but reiterates his assertion with the material alteration that no enquiry was made at the Native Office— an assertion of which again Hiis Excellency offers no proof. His Excellency remarks on the omission of the word "recently" from a quotation from His Excellency's Memorandum of the 2(sih instant. Ministers do noi quite understand the bearing of His Excellency's remark. It was this word "recently"' which, in their two hist Memoranda, they endeavoured to induce His Exceilencv lo be so good as to explain, liny wished His Excellency to state whether by its use he meant before or after the escape of the prisoners;" and His Excellency has favoured them with no other reply than a repetition of the word, without any explanation whatever. The last paragraph but one of His Excellency's Memorandum appears to bo only a repetition, in a

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MEMORANDA AND 11EPO11TS