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