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ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

123

A.—No. la.

few isolated settlements, which, on your first arrival, were struggling into life, have multiplied throughout the length and breadth of the land into numerous thriving communities. Boads, farms, villages, towns, churches, schools, and all the conditions of civilized life, now occupy the then untraversed wilderness, and, above all, the people, animated by loyalty to the Queen, desire to exercise the constitutional liberty they possess in a manner not unworthy of the traditions of the great Empire to which it is their pride to belong. We trust that, on the termination of Your Excellency's second administration, the great services which you have rendered to the Crown and to the people of this Colony may be rewarded by Her Most Gracious Majesty by some signal mark of Her favour; and we respectfully beg you to accept our hearty wishes for your future happiness and welfare. T. H. Baetlet, Speaker.

Enclosure 2 in No. 51. Beplt to the -Address from the Legislative Council. Me. Speakee and Honoeable Gentlemen, — I can now only give you thanks for this Address. I can no longer promise by public services in your behalf to show any gratitude, but I thank you most sincerely, not only for your Address, but for the efforts you have so long made to secure the maintenance of the honor and authority of the Crown, and the welfare of Her Majesty's subjects, of both races, and to save Great Britain from an unnecessary expenditure of life and money. None can deny that a great and heroic work has been performed in this country. In the midst of difficulties of a most unusual kind, men —many of whom were distinguished by birth and intellectual and physical endowments of no common order —have each in their vocation, by enterprise, toil, and suffering, continued through long years, laid the stable foundation of a great Anglo-Saxon nation. Men who have so laboured together may well find a present happiness and consolation in their mutual regard, esteem, and admiration, and leave the case of their fame and reputation to the grateful millions who will follow them, and for whom they have in truth laboured. Associated, as I have been, with you in so great a work for so many years, it is with sorrow I find that the public ties which have bound us together are to be rent asunder; but it will be much to remember that one of your last acts towards me has been to present me an Address of which any Governor or ruler might feel proud, and to know that while I live, I shall have the pleasure of seeing you still labour honorably to fulfil your duties to your Queen and your country, however arduous they may be. G. Geet.

No. 52. Copy of a DESEATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.8., to the the Right Hon. the Duke of Buckingham. (No. 93.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord Duke, — 7th September, 1867. I have the honor to transmit for your Grace's information the copy of an Address adopted by the House of Representatives, which is to be presented to> me upon Tuesday next. I have, &c, His Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. G. GREY.

Enclosure in No. 52. Address from the House op Bepresentatives to Governor Sir George Gret, K.C.B. To His Excellency Sir Geoege Geet, Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, &c, &c, &c. Mat it please Youe Excellenct, — We, the Bepresentatives of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, desire to express to Your Excellency our sincere regret at the intimation which you have received from the Bight Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that your successor in the Government of this Colony will be immediately appointed, and to convey to Your Excellency the assurance of our regard and esteem. We respectfully beg to testify our appreciation of the earnest desire evinced by Your Excellency to co-operate at all times with the two Houses of the Legislature, and of the confidence reposed by Your Excellency in their desire to promote the interests of both races. We have especially to express our gratitude for the efforts made by Your Excellency during the last three years to protect tho constitutional rights of New Zealand, and to defend its character. A practice has arisen with respect to this Colony, under which persons have been permitted secretly to convey to the Imperial authorities accusations of the gravest kind against Your Excellency, your Government, and the Colonists generally. This system of direct defamation, violating as it does every principle of justice, has naturally produced animosity and discord. The constitutional position of the Governor has been ignored, his commission from Her Majesty degraded, and the spread of calumny officially recognized and indefinitely extended. Thus the political rights of the Colony have been imperilled and its character maligned. We lament that the important constitutional questions connected with the Government of New Zealand, raised by Your Excellency, should be treated by the Imperial Government as a mere personal matter, and that it should apparently regard as a satisfactory solution of the whole difficulty, the with-

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