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TO THE GOVERNOR OE NEW ZEALAND.

A.—No 1

the military operations would appear to have heen conducted with skill and gallantry. I am also glad to receive your satisfactory explanation of your not having reported these proceedings at an earlier date. You will observe that when, in my Despatch of the 28th December, I called your attention to this subject, I had before me a Despatch from you which showed that you were still at Wellington on the 15th of October, two days after an account of the transaction had been published in the Eawke's Bay Herald. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. CARNARVON.

No. 26. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon t« Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. (No. 15.) Sir, — Downing Street, 26th February, 1867. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 111, of the 29th of November, in which you call my attention to the circumstances under which a detachment of Her Majesty's Regular Forces had been ordered into the field at Tauranga, on the requisition of an officer of the Local Government, without your knowledge and concurrence. Mr. Mackay's proceedings, in asking for the support of Her Majesty's Troops in taking the first step towards the appropriation of Native lands, appear, from the papers before me, to have been very improper, and it is unfortunate that the instructions to Mr. Mackay and to the Military Officers were not sufficiently precise to prevent him from asking, and the Military Officer in command from affording, assistance towards obtaining land for the settlers in a manner eminently calculated to involve the Imperial Troops in fresh hostilities. I infer, however, from the tone of your Despatch, that the error will not be repeated. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. CARNARVON.

No. 27. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon the Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. (No. 17.) Sir, — Downing Street, 27th February, 1867. From my Circular Despatch of the 6th instant you will learn that Her Majesty had been graciously pleased to extend the decoration of the Victoria Cross to persons serving in the Local Forces in the Colonies. I have now the pleasure to inform you that Her Majesty has signified her intention of conferring the Cross on Major Heaphy, of the Auckland Militia, whose claims to this distinction were brought under the notice of Her Majesty's Government by your Despatch of the 22nd November, 1864, No. 169. The decoration has been forwarded to the Officer Commanding Her Majesty's Troops in New Zealand for presentation to Major Heaphy. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. CARNARVON.

No. 28. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. (No. 18.) Sir, — Downing Street, 28th February, 1867. I have the honor to enclose the copy of a letter from the War Office, transmitting a Despatch from General Chute, of which I presume you have 7