!'].— No. 2,

occupied. Rebels in considerable numbers are, from time to time, surrendering, and in proof of their sincerity give up their arms ; and there is every reason to believe that a firm and consistent course on the part of the Government would speedily produce a general and satisfactory submission by those still in arms. Ministers, therefore, earnestly deprecate the abandonment of a sound and hitherto successful policy and the substitution of an alternative which will in all probability produce but an armed truce between settlers and the Maoris, fraught with danger to both, instead of a genuine and lasting peace beneficial alike to Her Majesty's subjects of both races. A more unfortunate moment for the exhibition of any vacillation on the part of the Governor could not be selected than the present, while there is every reason to believe that reasonable firmness upon the basis of the policy adopted by the Assembly in 1863, would result in the permanent pacification of the country, without the risk of any future renewal of similar disturbances. Feedk. Whitakeb. I3th September, 1864. No. 8. MEMORANDUM by the Governob. fhe Governor begs to acknowledge the receipt of the Ministerial Memorandum of yesterday's date upon the subject of the Proclamation he proposes to issue, stating the conditions upon which the Queen's clemency will be extended to those Natives who return to their allegiance. He thinks his Responsible Advisers are under some wrong impressions in relation to this subject, and will, upon re consideration, feel that such is the case. The Governor does not think that any vacillation of purpose is about to be exhibited at the present moment. On the 30th of Juno last his Responsible Advisers published in the Gazette a despateli which conveyed to him instructions which embodied the decisions of Her Majesty's Government, as to the conditions on which they desired that the Governor should extend the Queen's clemency to Natives who have been in arms. He now proposes to give effect to those instructions. He thinks his Kesponsible Advisers ought not to have made the despatch public, if they had intended to oppose his giving effect to the instructions which were issued in it to him. He concurs in the justice and propriety of those instructions, and as they have been made public, he, a subject, cannot take upon himself the responsibility of withholding from his fellow-subjects the Queen's clemency, which she has expressed her desire should be extended to them upon certain conditions. The Governor has not refused to give his Responsible Advisers an assurance that their views would not be considered by himself and the General. What he declined to do was, to give an assurance that the cessions of land taken should be to the extent his Responsible Advisers might think required for the purposes named. He has at all times given his careful consideration to any views they have brought before him, although he has unfortunately not been always able to concur in them. The other arguments contained in the Ministerial Memorandum of yesterday's date, regarding the cession of lands and the surrender of arms, it is not necessary for the Governor again to answer. He has already pointed out that all the lands ceded will be available for the purposes of military settlements, or for defraying the expenses of the war. He believes the cessions taken would fulfil all reasonable expectations. He will only add that he does not think that his Responsible Advisers are right in saying that his sole guide in the determination of the questions to be submitted to him, is his notion of justice to the Maori, to the exclusion, as it would appear, of every other consideration, even the safety of lives and property, and of justice to the Europeans who have fought and suffered in the war, and to the exclusion of all reference to what is likely to conduce to the permanent welfare of the two races living in one country. The Governor, under great difficulties, has done, and will do, his best to do justice to all the interests which it is his duty to consider. He does this under a full sense of the great responsibility which »ests upon him, and with the knowledge that his country and posterity in New Zealand will sit in judgment on his acts. It is with this knowledge and under this responsibility that he has on several occasions, declined to act on the advice of his Responsible Advisers, under the belief that had he done so he would have been hereafter adjudged fo have done that which was wrong, and which must tend to drive a nation to despair. In the present discussion he unhesitatingly appeals to his country and to posterity to judge between his views and those of his Responsible Advisers, and to pronounce whether when a man has to come to a decision amidst so many and great difficulties, his Responsible Advisers ou^ht not to refrain from clouding his judgment, and trying to force him to a decision he does not approve, by using such language as their Memorandum contains. If upon a re-consideration of the subject his Responsible Advisers still refuse to acquiesce in the Proclamation submitted to them, as the Governor, for the reasons ho has stated, considers it to be lis duty, sorry as he is to differ in opinion with them, to adhere to his intention of issuing it, he begs to be informed what course they intend to pursue. The fact of the Natives who were taken by the troops, and who were confined on board the hulk, having left the Kawau, may now cause some delay in the issue of the proposed Proclamation until the Governor has ascertained what effect this proceeding may produce on the Native population ; but he hopes that he may, as soon as is convenient, be favoured with replies to the questions he has asked, in order that he may have the means of determining what is the Hue of conduct he ought to adopt. r G. Gbet. Government House, Auckland, 14th September, 1864.

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PAPERS RELATIVE TO NATIVE AFFAIRS.