A.—No. 1

66

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW

law. In particular, it is stated that the minds of my audience w Tere disabused of a prevalent notion that the arrival of the new Governor would lead to alterations in the law, and to a reversal of the policy pursued of late years by Her Majesty's. Government. It will be seen that I reminded them, in their own figurative language, that " Governors and Maori chiefs, like other men, are mortal, and pass away, like " the changes of the seasons ; whereas the law remains the same for ever, even as " the sun shines in heaven, both in summer and in winter. I have come here to " uphold the law. If any man be aggrieved, let him state his grievance in a law- " ful manner, and justice will be done him whether he be Pakeha or Maori." And again: " The Queen is always glad to hear that her Maori children are living in " peace and harmony with her European children. It is, and always has been, the " desire of the Queen that there should be one law for both Pakeha and Maori. " The word of the Queen is that the Pakeha and Maori should be united as one " people." I have, &c, G. F. BOWEN. His Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.

No. 42. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to His Grace the Duke of Buckingham. (No. 31.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord Duke,— 28th April, 1868. In continuation of my Despatches, No. 26, of the 2nd, and No. 28, of the 4th instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith, for presentation to Her Majesty, further addresses to the Queen from various parts of this Colony, —all expressing the horror and indignation of the Colonists of New Zealand at the attempt recently made at Sydney to assassinate the Duke of Edinburgh. 2. Similar feelings are everywhere expressed by the Maoris. They form the burden of many of the speeches delivered at the Native meetings at which I have lately been present, and of many of the letters addressed to me by the principal chiefs. I subjoin as a specimen of these loyal and hearty effusions, the following translation of a letter circulated among his tribe by Te Wheoro, an influential chief of Waikato :— " O my friends ! The tidings have reached us here about the attempt to " assassinate the son of the Queen. Our hearts are very dark on account of this " great calamity which has befallen the descendant of Kings and Chiefs, who was " coming in his greatness to visit this land, inhabited by his faithful people. We, " the Chiefs of Waikato, who are living under the laws of his mother, Queen " Victoria, had been looking forward to the arrival of this young Chief, to greet " him as a noble stranger with songs of welcome, and to show him the ancestral " customs of the Maoris, the Natives of this country. But he has been held back " from us by this evil which has befallen his innocent person. Alas !ye children " of Kings, to what perils are you exposed ! O son of the Queen, rest you " patiently under this affliction. We, your Maori friends, are bowed down with " sorrow on account of this evil deed which has been brought upon you in the " days when in your graciousness you w"ere about to visit your faithful tribes in " these islands. There can be no murder equal to this, which is the most " atrocious ever perpetrated in the world, and the remembrance of which will '■' never pass away. Enough: Here ends this greeting from your friend who " is living under the shadow of the Queen. —W. Te Wheoho." 3. In a letter which the Duke of Edinburgh addressed to me from Sydney,. His Royal Highness expressed the deep regret and disappointment which he felt at being obliged, in consequence of the representations of Commodore Lambert and of his medical advisers, to abandon, on the presentoccasion, his proposed visit