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to New Zealand ; requesting me, at the same time, to make known these sentiments to both races of Her Majesty's subjects in this Colony. I have accordingly caused a notification to the desired effect to be published in English and Maori in the Government Gazette. This notification has been copied into all the Colonial newspapers ; and I have used similar language in addressing the various Native meetings at which I have been present. As I have already stated elsewhere, I have performed this part of my duty with a heavy heart, for I felt how much better it would have been performed by the Duke of Edinburgh in person; and that the projected visits of His lloyal Highness to the principal Native districts, had it been possible to have carried them out, might have exercised a very salutary influence on the Maoris, and might have thus been productive of important public benefits. I have, &c, His Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. G. E. BOWEN.

Vide Nem Zealand Gazette^ No. 26, 1808, p. 229.

No. 43. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to His Grace the Duke of Buckingham. (No. 32.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord Duke,— 29th April, 1868. I have the honor to transmit the enclosed account, extracted from the columns of the local newspapers, of my recent public reception at Onchunga, the town at the head of the navigation of the Manukau harbour, and distant about six miles from Auckland. 2. As the local journals observe, " The cordial and enthusiastic reception " given to mo "by the people of the town and its neighbourhood was highly " creditable to the inhabitants, as being an uninistakcable manifestation of their " loyalty to their beloved Sovereign, and of their respect for her Representative in " New Zealand." It will be observed that I was welcomed also by the Maoris resident in the district with the customary war dance, and with a feast in the Native fashion. 3. Copies of the addresses presented to Lady Bowen and myself will be found in the enclosures. It will have been observed that on this as on several other similar occasions language has been used to the same effect with this paragraph in the Onehunga address:—" We trust that, under your administration, the " adversities under which we have lately suffered may be ameliorated, and that " the Province may be restored to its former prosperity." It would of course be unfortunate if too much were expected in any quarter from a Governor who, so far as colonial interests are concerned, is simply the constitutional head of a Responsible Ministry; and I venture to solicit the attention of your Grace to the terms of my reply, and especially to the following paragraphs in it: —" Supported " and strengthened by the Legislature and by the people generally (as I am " confident, from the warmth of the greetings which I have received, that I shall " be), it would indeed be unpardonable if I Avere ever to neglect any of the duties " of my office, or ever to spare the best exertions of which I am capable towards " promoting your happiness and prosperity. But lam sure that you, Gentlemen, " will agree with me that the welfare of a country possessing self-government " depends, under the blessing of Providence, on the prudence and energy of its " own inhabitants. It is with a State or a Province as it is with an individual. " The whole life of every active man in a free country is necessarily a life of " labour and competition. It is a life of competition with those who are running " the same race, of struggle with circumstances —often of fight against that " adverse fortune which must now and then befal us all. But he who enters into " the work of life with that dogged perseverance which is the peculiar character-: " istic of the Anglo-Saxon race, will be well-nigh certain, sooner or later, to turn "to advantage whatever talents and opportunities he may possess. In con- " elusion, Gentlemen, I thank you for your good wishes for Lady Bowen and my "family. The duties of the Governor of a Colony where Parliamentary

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ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.