B —-No. o

1846.

1847.

1848.

1853.

1854.

18-55.

SG. At the close of the year 1815, Your Excellency assumed tho administration of the Government of New Zoaland. In anticipation of your arrival Lord Stanley addressed a despatch to you, on the 13th June, 1845, conveying the views of Her Majesty's Government, and remarked that, " subject to those general rules, you will of course require from those people (the Aborigines) an implicit subj ■lion to the law, and, you will of necessity enforce that submission by the use of all the power, civil and military, at your command." To effect these objects, and to arrest the course of the rebellion, Your Excellency urged upon Lord Stanley, on the 14th May, 18 IG, that 2500 Imperial troops "were at present requisite for the maintenance of British supremacy in those Islands." You further, in a subsequent Despatch of the. 21st of June, of the same year, referred to circumstances, originating in the system of waiving the Crowns' right of pre-emption over tho lands, tho property of the Natives, which threaten to produce the most disastrous consequences to the country ; " leading, among other things, to disastrous tram amongst the natives, owing to adverse claims;" you declared also that "the future prospects of the Colony are becoming irretrievably ruined by this system ;" and you propose as a remedy the introduction of another system, which should provide a fund to be expended in examining Native Titles, making surveys, forming roads, undertaking public works, and in immigration. Your Excellency further represented that finding the Protectorate Department, as established, utterly useless for all practical purposes, you had abolished it, and had created in its place tho Native Secretariat Department. 57. During the next few years the native disturbances in the North of Auckland were effectually suppressed by energetic military operations ; indeed, so complete was the suppression, and so judicious the after treatment, that there lias not been in that neighborhood since that time any symptom of dUaSection during the existing rebellion over a largo portion of the Northern Island. The insurrections at tho Hutt and at Wanganui were also effectually put down; so that on the 27th of July, 1847, you were able to report to Earl Grey, that "a greater amount of tranquillity prevails throughout the whole of New Zealand than lias ever hitherto existed." This opinion was entirely endorsed by your successor, Colonel Browne, who in writing to the Duke of Newcastle on the 13th of July, 1861, states that, " during the last five or six years of Sir George Grey's Gov3rnment the country was quiet. Ho had succeeded in creating a strong feeling of personal attachment to himself among the Natives of most of the tribes, and this naturally was mistaken for a cordial attachment to the British Government and rule." A similar testimony was given in his Despatch of the 3rd November, 1860, to the Duke of Newcastle, in which he observes that "a large annual grant from the Imperial Treasury, full power, and great tact enabled Sir George Grey to keep the country tranquil: but, he was unable to establish any system or machinery which could effectually prevent tho collision of elements so discordant as those with which New Zealand has to deal." It would be irrelevant to my present object to note at any length the occurrences of the next few years ; it will be sufficient to state that various earnest efforts wn-o made to induce the Natives to adopt a system of self Government; that, at the close of 1848, an Act was passed, on your Excellency's recommendation, to provide for the establishment of Provincial Legislative Councils in the Colony; that, owing to the then peculiar condition of New Zealand, the Act for giving it a Constitution was suspended for a time, but was brought into operation in 1853; that large settlements were maturing in the Middle Island; and that the Colony was rapidly advancing in material wealth, and was assuming a position among the Colonies of Great Britain, which would compare not unfavourably with those of older origin. 1854 to 1863. 58. Your Excellency having sailed for England on the 31st December, 1853, Lieutenant-Colonel 'Wynyard, as Chief Officer in command of Her Majesty's Military forces within the Colony, assumed the exercise of the office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief on the 3rd January, 1854, and he shortly after called together the first Parliament under the Constitution Act. It was evident to the thoughtful observer of passing events that, though the longing desire for a separate nationality had not of late evinced any symptoms of decided activity in the Native mind, still, such symptoms were likely to be evolved by any untoward circumstances. Tribal disputes with respect to the ownership of land, and the right of individuals to dispose of it, still prevailed; and there were not wanting signs indicative of combined action on the part of those who, jealous of the increasing numbers and influence of tho Europeans, were banded together to prevent the further alienation of land, and those who yearned to preserve a distinct nationality under a Native sovereign. It was not necessary to go far in search of an exciting cause, for it appears that in August, 1854, Rawiri, a Native Assessor in New Plymouth, proposed to sell some land to the Crown, and was desired by Mr. Cooper, the Land Commissioner of the Taranaki district, to cut the border, which, on his attempting to do, he and six others were murdered. In the July of 1855 these inter-tribal disputes had assumed so serious a character in the Province of Taranaki that Governor Wynyard, having consulted his Executive Council, resolved to take steps, by the presence of a military force, to cause the neutrality of the settlers to be respected; but the Colonial Secretary, in his letter of the 26th of July, expressly requests that the Officer Commuudiug the Troops should receive explicit and strict directions to confine the duties of the military to strengthening the peaceful relations between the European and the Native race ; and "on no account, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the differences of the contending tribos in the neighborhood." The third Session of the Parliament was opened by Colonel Wynyard on the Bth of August, 1855, and shortly after, on the 6th of September, Colonel Gore Browne having arrivod, intimated to the Houses of Assembly his having assumed the government of the Colony. He declared his intention "to continue the policy hitherto adopted towards the Aborigines in maintaining inviolate their right to their land, and in securing to them an impartial administration of justice ;" and he also stated his readiness "to carry out, in its integrity, the principle of Ministerial Responsibility." In furtherance of his views he informed Lord John Russell, in his Despatch of the 19th of November, 1855, that he had " disapproved of Mr. Cooper's conduct in commencing a survey before he was assured that all, who had even a disputed claim to the land, desired that it should be sold," and, in consequence, he declined to make anv demand for reparation on account of the murders which had been committed. 59. The introduction of the Constitution Act, and the establishrnejiit of Ministerial Responsibility under it, in place of the nominee Council which existed when New Zealand was purely a Crown Colony,

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