ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

45

A.—No. la,

arose from no indolence or self-indulgence on my part, for I was engaged in putting down a local disturbance which had arisen between Wanganui and Taranaki, and in doing my duty to Her Majesty to the best of my abiHty. 5. I have not my Despatch-book here to refer to, but I believe that immediately a Gazette reached me containing the accounts of this transaction, I sent copies of the letters in it to your Lordship. But at that time I was living a very hard life, without any convenience for writing, and I cannot tell whether I may have been compelled to delay sending these papers on to your Lordship until I could obtain such conveniences: I was, in fact, in a private soldier's tent, with few more conveniences than a private soldier has. 6. I certainly did not attempt to give your Lordship the means of showing that the affairs at Napier were not, in fact, unwarranted and merciless attacks on unoffending persons, because it never entered into my head to conceive that any persons could so describe them to your Lordship ; in fact I could not have believed that anyone would have attributed, without inquiry, merciless acts to Mr. McLean, the Superintendent of Napier, for I have known him well for more than twenty years, and have alw rays found him a most kind, considerate, and merciful man. I should have thought, if I had ever reflected on such a subject, that even if such a description of the events at Napier had been given to your Lordship as that alluded to in your Despatch, that explanations would then have been called for, and that the time would then have come when it would have been necessary for me to caU for any information which would have been necessary to enable your Lordship to show that these affairs had not, in fact, been unwarrantable and merciless attacks on unoffending persons. 7. Such expressions having been used in a public Despatch must, I think, create in all persons minds a belief that some grounds exist for thinking that the authorities at Napier have been guilty of the offences named. If grounds for such a belief exist in your Lordship's mind, I earnestly entreat that they may be stated, and that justice may be done in the matter. 8. With regard to an affair at some village on the West Coast, to which your Lordship also alludes, as no name or date is given, I am uncertain what even can be described by you. I can only guess, and I think rightly, that it is an affair wliich took place at Pungarehu. 9. I may have omitted in several instances to forward a narrative of affairs which took place during the operations of a war extending over several years. All reports of such events, or copies of them, went to the Military Authorities, who reported direct to the Secretary of State for War in terms of which I had no knowledge, and I often have felt an unwillingness to send reports on affairs which might conflict with theirs. 10. If the affair at Pungarehu is that to wliich your Lordship alludes, and I have no doubt that such is the case, then I would say that I have visited that village with an armed force since the affair alluded to took place, that its inhabitants, instead of being unoffending persons, contained amongst their number some of the worst and most desperate characters in New Zealand; that the village itself is the largest native village I have seen, that the force which attacked it was very small, and that instead of escape being cut off from the people of the vfllage it was very nearly cut off from our own small force, nothing but their determined gallantry carrying them through the affair. In truth, their escape was a very narrow one. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. ■ G. GREY.

No. 23. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.8., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. (No. 30.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord,— 4th April, 1867. I have been requested by my Responsible Advisers to transmit, for your Lordship's information, the enclosed copy of a Memorandum, containing their 12