A.—No. 1a

32

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW

No. 19. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.8., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. (No. 20.) Christchurch, Canterbury, My Lord, — 4th February, 1867. I have only time to say that I have received your Despatch No. 49, of the Ist December last, deposing me from a large portion of my powers, placing them in the hands of General Chute, and requiring me to assist him in carrying them out. I feel deeply this disgrace, but I shall do my duty under it to the best of my ability. 2. I regret that your Lordship should have been misled into taking this step which, at the present critical moment, must in many respects produce very important results. 3. I furnished your Lordship with all the information regarding the removal of the tro'ops, which was in my possession. But as the Major-General who commanded the Local and Regular Eorces insisting on residing in Auckland, I was deprived of any source of information, it took me fifteen days to ask a question and receive an answer; none of the promises made of leaving an officer of rank to reside near me were kept; I have been left without any means whatever of obtaining information, and which I daily required. Your Lordship has been quite misled, on these points. 4. All of the statements your Lordship has made upon the authority of information supplied by the War Department, and your inferences drawn from copies of letters supplied by the same Department can be shown to be incorrect, copies of intermediate letters not having been put up as enclosures to those Despatches, copies of which were sent to you, so that entirely wrong impressions have been created on your mind. 5. I am sorry your Lordship has from this cause been led to write the Despatch you did, for it will be impossible for me to explain my conduct without making it evidently wrong that such a Despatch should have been written to me from the Colonial Department. 6. It is with a regret I can hardly express, that whilst there is much real work to do, I find myseH forced continually, by statements sent by the Military Departments, to defend myself against erroneous accusations. 7. My Responsible Advisers have requested me to send the enclosed Memorandum, for your information, on your Despatch No.' 49. Like myself, they will reply to it by the next maU. 8. Much as I am hurt at what your Lordship has done, I am still more grieved at the injury and discredit which will be inflicted on the Public Service when my replies to the statements made against me are seen. I trust your Lordship will allow no more letters to be sent to you from the Military Authorities here, unless you have my report on them. I can assure you that a most serious difficulty has arisen on this occasion. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. G. GREY.

Enclosure in No. 19. Memorandum by Mr. Stafford. Christchurch, 2nd February, 1867. The important Despatch from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonics, No. 49, of the Ist December, 1566, will, so soon as they can meet, be considered by Ministers, who will submit a Memorandum to His Excellency with respect to it, before the next mail leaves for England. For His Excellency the Governor. E. W. Stafford.

No. 20. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.8., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. (No. 22.) Christchurch, Canterbury, My Lord, — 12th February, 1867. I have had the honor of receiving your Lordship's Despatch No. 49, of