A.—No. 1

82

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF NEW

Enclosure 1 in No. 50. The Speech of the Goveenoe to the Aeawas at the Meeting at Maketu, 6th June, 1868. Oh my friends, oh chiefs and people of the Arawas, this is the word of the Queen and of me the Governor and representative of the Queen : I thank you for your loyal speeches and for the hearty welcome which you have accorded to me to-day. Ever since I came to New Zealand I have longed to visit your tribe, and your wonderful country, so richly endowed by nature, and the fame of which has gone forth so far. I have heard and read much of your loyalty to the Queen, and of your friendship for your neighbours of European blood. Tour bravery in war is celebrated throughout Now Zealand, and my heart rejoices to learn that you are now determined to become equally celebrated in the arts of peace. It is well that the children of the Arawa should set an example to all the Maori tribes by their good works. I have heard that you are making provision for the education of your youth by founding schools. The Government will help you in the terms of the law ; and here let me say that I am glad to see so many children in your settlements, which blessing is mainly due to the temperance and sobriety of your lives. You recollect that the Holy Scriptures say, " Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them." I hope to-day to visit your school at Maketu, and to visit your other settlements and schools next year —in the summer time, when I shall travel to see your beautiful lakes and hot-springs, over the road which your loyalty has induced you to make for the Queen's son, the Duke of Edinburgh. I have already written to the Queen and to the Prince to inform them of this proof of your hospitable devotion ; and I know that they will rejoice at it, and will write letters to thank you so soon as the tidings reach England. You know already the deplorable cause which prevented the Queen's son from visiting New Zealand. He has requested me to inform you that he deeply regrets (that his heart is very dark) that he has been prevented from visiting his Maori friends, and assuring them of the royal affection which the Queen his mother bears to them. The desire of the Queen is that her Maori children, and her Pakeha children, should be governed by the same laws and should become, as it were, one people. The Queen also hopes that all dissensions amongst the Maoris themselves may cease. Some of you have referred to these dissensions. Oh my friends, hearken to my words ; let not the land be a cause of strife among yourselves, but refer your difficulties to the Courts and to the Magistrates, who are equally friends to all parties, and have no interest but to do justice to all alike. I am gratified at the wishes which many of you have expressed in j^our speeches, that I should stay longer at Maketu. The Parliament or Bamanga is soon to meet at Wellington to deliberate alike for the welfare of the Maori and the Pakeha. I must visit Wellington for these deliberations, but as I have said already I hope to return in the summer. And now once more, oh my friends, I thank you for your welcome, and I pray that God, the giver of all good, may grant you happiness and prosperity.

Enclosures 2 and 3 in No. 50. Address to the Govehnok from the Pkoyincial Council of Hawke's Bat, with His Excellency's reply. To His Excellency Sir GrEOiiaE EEitar/soN Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same. Mat it Please Yoite Excellency,— "We, the Provincial Council of the Province of Hawke's Bay, bid your Excellency a hearty welcome to our Province on this your first visit to Hawke's Bay. We hope that your Excellency will be able on this occasion to visit some of the adjacent country, so that during your administration you may hereafter be enabled at future visits to mark the progress of the most recently colonized Province in this island. "We exceedingly regret that we cannot also now welcome Lady Bowen to Napier, but we hope that at a future time we may be afforded the opportunity of doing so. We trust that your Excellency's administration may be attended with the happiest results to both races of Her Majesty's subjects in the Colony, and assure your Excellency of our earnest desire to do our utmost to support your Government to that end. Reply. Me. Speakee and Gentlemen, — I thank the Provincial Council of Hawke's Bay for this address, and for the hearty welcome which you have accorded to me on my first visit to your Province. The support and sympathy which I receive from the public bodies, and from all classes of my fellow-countrymen in every part of New Zealand, are most gratifying to me personally, and are most satisfactory on public grounds, as fresh proofs of the loyalty of the entire population, and of their good will to the representative of their Sovereign. Napier, the name of your capital, recalls the memory of a great soldier ; and Hawke's Bay, the name of your Province, recalls the memory of a great seaman, the early friend and patron of the illustrious navigator, who first planted the British flag on these shores. 1 visited yesterday the exact spot at Turanganui where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand ; and 1 thought that it would have rejoiced his heart, amid the distresses and anxieties of his voyages of discovery, if he could have foreseen that in the then savage region which he made known to his countrymen, within less than a century a flourishing Colony would arise, destined, in all human probability, to become the Great Britain of the Southern hemisphere. I hope to spend some days in visiting the interior of this noble Province, so rich in pastoral and