A,—No. 9.

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE

4

Copies of the Besolutions, as passed by both Houses, and of " The New Zealand Commissioners Act, 1809," are appended. The Commissioners will bo careful to act strictly in the spirit, and as nearly as possible'with the letter of these Besolutions. The expediency of employing a force of Ghoorkas, which is touched upon in the sth Eesolution as passed by the House of Eepresentatives, but omitted from the same Eesolution as passed by the Legislative Council, is a matter for the sole discretion of the Commissioners. They will receive any evidence or information that may bo tendered before them on'that head, and give it their impartial consideration; but the decision whether a Ghoorka " or any other disciplined body of men " should be employed in the terms of Eesolution 5, is left to their unfettered discretion. 3. On other matters not bearing on the question of Colonial defence, the Commissioners will receive separate instructions. The Commissioners are no doubt aware that the relations between the Imperial and Colonial Governments, particularly on the subject of military aid, have not for some time past been so harmonious as could have been wished. The Commissioners will, in their communications with the Imperial Government, use every endeavour to remove any unfavourable feeling from the mind of the Imperial Government, and to revive, if possible (and Government believes it is quite possible) feelings of Imperial sympathy towards the Colony, and of mutual harmony between the two Governments. Wellington, 29th November, ISG9. W. Fox.

No. 2. Memorandum by Mr. Gisboene. (Copies sent to the New Zealand Commissioners in London, on the 21st January, 1870.) Wellington, 7th January, 1870. Ministers have read Earl Granville's Despatch No. 115, dated the 7th of October last, communicating the decision of the Imperial Government to remove forthwith the 18th Eegiment, the only regiment left in New Zealand, and have to express the great regret with which they have learned this decision and the grounds on which it is based. Earl Granville takes some exception to having only received, when this decision was formed, the Address to Major-General Sir Trevor Chute, and the Act pledging the Colony to contribute towards the support of the regiment during its temporary detention pending the decision of Her Majesty's Government, and states that no pledge has been given that the Colony will accept that decision respecting the terms on which the troops are to be finally stationed in New Zealand. Ministers cannot conceive how any misunderstanding could have arisen on this point. The temporary detention, of tho regiment, pending the decision of Her Majesty's Government, was obviously intended to be followed by negotiations with that Government as to the terms on which it could be stationed here for the future. His Excellency's Despatches, the Memoranda of Ministers, the debates in the Legislature, all of which went by the same mail that took the Address to Sir Trevor Chute, would have, it was thought, fully shown this to be the case. The Besolutions of the two Houses formally pledging themselves to that course, and requiring Commissioners to be sent to England for the purpose of negotiation, were passed a few days afterwards, and went by the next mail. It is to be regretted that the Imperial Government did not, before they formed a decision, await those proposals, to the absence of which Lord Granville refers, and the arrival of the Commissioners in their support. Ministers earnestly trust that the Imperial Government, when they are in possession of those definite proposals, and of the representations of the Commissioners, will be willing to reconsider the subject, and to accede to the prayer of the Colony. At the same time, Ministers desire respectfully to place on record some circumstances materially bearing on this important question, which do not appear to have been brought under the notice of Earl Granville when his Despatch was written. The grounds on which the decision to remove the 18th Eeajment is based are to some extent new. They may be broadly stated to be, —the possibility of British Troops being actively implicated in New Zealand warfare, and the encouragement, by the presence of British soldiers, of the Colony in a policy which the Imperial Government " have always regarded as pregnant with danger." The objectionable features in that policy, so far as can be gathered from the Despatch, seem to be the confiscation of Native land and the non-recognition of Maori authority. The novel character of these reasons will be admitted when it is remembered that, in 18G6 and 1867, two successive Secretaries of State (Mr. Cardwell and Lord Carnarvon), who had before them all the circumstances out of which these reasons arise, and who had moreover before them the direct request of the Colonial Government lhat all the Imperial Troops might be removed, decided to leave one Imperial Eegiment in New Zealand substantially on the sole condition that a certain sum was contributed by the Colony, not to the support of that regiment, but to Native purposes. The Imperial Government have now before them a united expression of opinion on the part of the Governor of the Colony, the local Eepresentative of Imperial interests, and on the part of both Houses of the Legislature, that one regiment should be left in the Colony, and the pledge of the Colony to contribute towards the support of that regiment for five years. And yet the retention of the regiment on any terms is refused upon political considerations which, if they have any force, had exactly the same force three years ago, when the Imperial Government were willing, without payment and unsolicited, to leave one regiment in New Zealand. And during the course of these three years, in all the voluminous, correspondence which has passed respecting the retention of this regiment, the Imperial Government never indicated their intention to reject all terms ; but, on the contrary, they have repeatedly imolied that the absence of any proposal on the part of the Colony to pay for the regiment, was the reason why it was to be removed, and have in effect invited the Colony to make such proposal. The best reply to the argument that the presence of one regiment in New Zealand would implicate