With reference to the recommendation of the Honorable the Minister for Native Affairs for carrying out the arrangement proposed by His Excellency the Governor in the second paragraph of his Memorandum dated the 12th March 1861, I take the liberty of making a few observations. I am quite prepared to meet the wishes of the Government by relinquishing the office of Chief Land Purchase Commissioner, and retaining that of Native Secretary. As, however, my tenure of the latter office would be contingent upon the continuance of existing arrangements for the management of Native affairs, ceasing in the event of the ''Native Council Act'' being brought into operation, I feel it to be but due to myself, after seventeen years service, and before taking a step which may practically involve my retirement from the Government, to submit my claim for some public and substantial recognition of past services in the shape of a retiring allowance. I submit that, before resigning a Commission held by me for more than eleven years, under Letters Patent of the Colony, justice to myself requires that I should ask the Colonial Government thus to mark its appreciation of the manner in which the trust confided to me has been discharged. It is unnecessary for me to remind the Government that during the whole period of my service the duties which have devolved upon me have been both arduous and delicate that they have entailed more than ordinary responsibilities, and that success has generally attended the negociations which I have conducted with the natives for the settlement of most difficult and complicated questions, both in connection with acquisition of territory for the extension of English settlement in these Islands, and others not less important, a satisfactory adjustment of which was essential to the prosperity of the Colony, the preservation of peace, and the safety of the English settlements. Donald McLean Auckland, May 14, 1861