TO THE GOVERNOR OE NEW ZEALAND.

33

A.—No. L

On the 12th of October your Responsible Advisers addressed to you, and on the 15th of October you transmitted, without remark, to General Chute, the following Memorandum':—" Ministers cannot refrain from expressing their surprise " that the Officers commanding the Imperial posts which were close to the scene " of Major McDonnell's operations should not have more actively assisted him." " It appears strange that the Commanders of the outposts who have been " instructed by the Major-General ' to lose no opportunity in attacking the rebel " 'Natives, and, by constant patrols and reconnoitering parties, to harass and " ' annoy them as much as possible,' should remain within then* redoubts whilst a " very difficult and hazardous enterprise was being undertaken by a few Colonial " Troops in then immediate neighbourhood. Major McDonnell would have been " greatly aided and encouraged, had a party moved out from Waingongoro on the " morning of the 2nd, to have covered his retreat or to have supported him in " holding the position he had stormed, and he might have strengthened his small " force by withdrawing more men from Kakaramea and Hawera, could he have " calculated that patrols from Patea and Manawapou would have been scouring " the neighbourhood; but no assistance, beyond attending to the Avounded when " brought into their camp, was afforded by the Regulars, and it seems that in a " district occupied by them, and under the command of an Imperial officer, " outrages maybe committed, communications stopped, and redoubts fired, into, " whilst the punishment of the enemy, and the risks and hardships of a winter " campaign are left to a small body of Local Troops." The statements in the concluding sentence of this Memorandum, respecting the occurrence or prevalence of outrages in the neighbourhood of Patea, are denied by Major Rocke, and I express no opinion on a point which may thus be considered as in dispute; but having before me the facts which I have shortly recapitulated, I should be wanting in my duty to Her Majesty's Troops who have been employed in the defence of New Zealand if I did not unequivocally pronounce my opinion that the reflections cast by your Ministers upon a body of these troops, or the Officers who command them, in the Memorandum which you forwarded, without comment, to General Chute, is entirely unwarranted; and as your separate Despatch of the 2nd of November is calculated to suggest the idea that the censure cast in that Memorandum on the troops under General Chute's command on this occasion ought rather to have been applied to General Chute, I am further bound to state that, whether the inaction of Her Majesty's Troops on this occasion was right or wrong, I see no reason for supposing that General Chute was in any degree responsible for it, unless he issued to Major McDonnell the instructions which precluded him from applying to Major Rocke for assistance. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. CARNARVON.

No. 31. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. (No. 21.) Sir, — Downing Street, 6th March, 1867. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the Bth of January last (No. 1), informing me of your return to Wellington from the visit which you have paid to the interior of the Island. Your report of the manner in which you were received by the Natives in the districts which you visited, is very satisfactory, and I am glad to learn that they appear desirous of receiving Europeans amongst them, and of obeying the law. I have, &c, Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. CARNARVON. 9