ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

33

A.—No. l.v,

the Ist of December last, in which you inform me, that in consequence of a want of hearty co-operation between the CivH and Military Authorities in New Zealand, in giving effect to the instructions of the Home Government, and partly in consequence of a misapprehension on my part of the intentions with which the troops are retained in this Colony, your Lordship has been pleased (with one exception) to deprive me of the powers which flow from Her Majesty's Letters Patent, appointing me Governor and Commander-in-Chief of this Colony, of directing and controlling the movements and disposition of Her Majesty's Eorces within the limits of my command, and that it is your pleasure that my junior officer, Major-General Chute, shall hereafter have the movement and disposition of such troops vested exclusively in his hands, and that it will not be his duty to seek my authority for moving such troops. 2. I feel keenly the disgrace to which your Lordship has seen fit to subject me, in requiring me virtually to serve under my junior officer, by ordering me to give him every facility in carrying out duties, the performance of which Her Majesty entrusted to me, and which for so long a series of years I have carried out to Her Majesty's satisfaction, but it will be my pride to strive to serve Her Majesty as carefully in disgrace as in prosperity. 3. Yet, even when every care is taken by myself and the Colonial Authorities to make the course your Lordship has resolved to adopt work well for Her Majesty's Service, and the welfare of her subjects, I fear that, notwithstanding every effort, difficulties may arise and new disturbances break out. 4. Your Lordship's determination to subject me to so very serious a disgrace, must, I apprehend, in part, have been taken in consequence of a letter, stated in the enclosure to your Lordship's Despatch, to have been written by Major-General Chute to Sir Edward Lugard, in which the Major-General appears to have stated that he had been prevented by Sir George Grey from fulfilling his orders to send troops to Australia. What follows in this Despatch will enable your Lordship to judge whether Major-General Chute was or was not justified in making such a statement. 5. Your Lordship informs me that you have thought it necessary thus to deprive me of the position in relation to Her Majesty's Regular Eorces, which I have so long held, without hearing my explanations or defence, because of the nature and authenticity of the intelligence which has been communicated to your Lordship by the War Department. 6. Your Lordship also states, that I have not given you sufficient explanation on a subject so important as that of withdrawing Her Majesty's Regular Troops from New Zealand, and that you delayed acting in the hope of receiving information from me which might render it unnecessary for you to do so. 7. It will be found from my Despatches that I have given you every information on this subject that it was in my power to afford, and that I have given every facility I could for the execution of this service. But my action has been almost paralyzed by General Chute's persisting in not moving his Head Quarters to the Seat of Government. The command of the troops returning to England was also, by orders from home, in a great measure taken out of my hands. Nearly all information regarding this subject rested in the hands of the Military Departments, and, as I have repeatedly represented, they have refrained, even on the most important subjects, on which constitutionally it was essential I should have information, from making any report to me, or from even noticing me. 8. I also could not have supplied your Lordship with the inteUigence you received from the War Department as authentic, because I doubt its authenticity ; whether rightly or not, your Lordship will now be able to judge. 9. I have been living at the Seat of Government without a single officer of rank being allowed to reside near me. Every source of military communication, such as Governors always possess, has been cut off from me. It took me fifteen days to ask a question and have it answered. PracticaUy, on many subjects regarding the removal of the troops from the Colony, I knew no more than the Governor of New South Wales did. The records of your Lordship's office wfll show how frequently I have entreated, in the most earnest manner, for a change in the system wliich indirectly deprived me of all efficient control over Her 9