A.—No. 1.

questions put, and to the remarks made respecting the treaty of Waitangi, and other important topics. Of course I always settle previously with my Constitutional Advisers the general policy to be enunciated in my addresses to the Natives. 9. This meeting was held near the tomb of Potatau te Whero Where, who was elected in 1857 to be the first King of the Maoris. This tomb is much dilapidated, and it will be seen that I promised, on behalf of the Colonial Government, that it should be restored and kept in repair, " in honor of a famous " Chief of the old time, who never made war on the Queen, and who lived for " many years in peace and harmony with his Pakeha neighbours." It will be recollected that Potatau died before the commencement of the late war; and that his son and successor, Matutaera {i.e. Methuselah), who has now assumed the heathen name of Tawhiao, a man of no force of character, soon fell into the hands of a few ambitious chiefs and fanatical Native prophets, animated by bitter hostility against the Europeans, and setting the Queen's authority and laws at utter defiance. 10. Erom Ngaruawahia I proceeded to the new township of Hamilton, where I was received by another body of the European settlers, and by the Ngatihaua tribe, to which belonged the eminent chief Tarapipipi te Waharoa, better known in Parliamentary Papers and official records by his Christian name of William Thompson, and by his soubriquet of the " Maori Warwick," or the " King maker;" for he was the leading and controlling mind of what is termed the " Kingmovement." He died in 1867, and his clansmen, though mostly engaged against the Government during the war, have now returned to their villages, and are living on peaceful terms with the Europeans. His son, and the other chiefs of the tribe, came to welcome me at the Hamilton meeting; and it was interesting and gratifying to see the Military Settlers and the Ngatihauas, so lately arrayed in arms against each other, and in many cases showing the scars of wounds received in recent fights, intermingled in a friendly manner, and cordially uniting in? the demonstrations made in honor of the Governor as the representative of their common Sovereign. I annex copies of the address presented to me by the Ngatihaua chiefs, and of my speech at the close of the customary meeting. As at Ngaruawahia, so at Hamilton, I invited the leading settlers and. Native chiefs to dine with me. I may take this opportunity of mentioning that the principal Maori chiefs of the North, with their wives, attended the ball which I gave at Auckland in celebration of Her Majesty's birthday. 11. During my tour in the Waikato, to the more important incidents of which I have now referred, I visited the remains of the Maori pas and field-works, especially those at Meremere and Rangiriri, before which so many of our officers and soldiers fell. An English high road now traverses, and the posts and wires of the electric telegraph surmount the mouldering trenches and rifle-pits already overgrown with wild shrubs and fern. lam assured that the Colonial Government will take measures for the proper preservation of the graveyards at llangiriri and the other scenes of former contests, where many British soldiers rest near their Maori foemen. 12. I annex a map on which Major Ileaphy, V.C., has described the confiscated lands, where the military settlements have been planted, and also the territory of King Tawhiao and his immediate adherents, now enclosed by an aukati, or boundary, which no European is allowed to cross on pain (after due warning) of death. Your Grace will, of course, recognize in the Maori aukati a " pale," in. the sense familiar in Irish history —with this important difference, however, that in Ireland the " pale" was set up by the Colonists against the Natives, whereas, in New Zealand, it is set up by the Natives against the Colonists. It has been often observed that it is a lamentable fact that, after all the expenditure of blood and treasure which has taken place in this country, the Queen's writ can hardly be said to run in the purely Maori districts of New Zealand in the reign of Queen Victoria, any more than it ran in the Celtic Districts of Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in the Celtic Districts of Scotland in the reign of Queen Anne. Indeed a close historical parallel has been frequently drawn between the social condition of the Maori Highlands at the present day, and that of the Scotch Highlands down to the middle of the

Enclosure No. 3. Enclosure No. 4. Mcc Auckland Provincial Gazette, June 2, 18G8.

Enclosure No. 5.

74

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW