PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Downing-street, August 1, 1867.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3188, 4 October 1867, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Downing-street, August 1, 1867.

SIE, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 47, of the 27th of April, ia which, at the request of your Responsible Advisers, you transmit a memorandum respecting Lord Carnarvon's Despatch, No. 56, of the 28th December last, by which Major-General Chute was invested with exclusive control over such of the troops then in New Zealand as were not intended for further service there. Your Ministers treat that despatch as containing aspersions on themselves and the colonial force employed under their orders, as withdrawing from your control the troops about to leave the colony ; and they advance the opinion that the Secretary of State cannot constitutionally withdraw from the Governor the authority they conceive to be vested in him by his commission. They also complain of the peremptory and precipitate manner in whioh the troops have been withdrawn. The general tone and tenor of the memorandum whioh you transmit does not lead me to think that any public good will accrue from my entering upon a controversy with your Advisers on the subject of it t I have only, therefore, to make the following remarks :—: — First : That as no official information had been received respecting certain operations by colonial forces against natives, reported in thepublic papers to have occurred, and to have resulted in much loss of life, it was the imperative duty of the "Secretary of State to pall attention to that fact, and to point out the prejudice whioh might arise to the colony if the statements alluded to became the subject of comment, while he was unable to offer any explanation to show the necessity of the operations and the gallantry with which they had been effected. Next : That whatever may be the authority conferred upon you by your commission under the title of Commander-in -Chief, it is at all times subject to instructions from the Imperial Government. This will be seen by reference to the commission itself. That by Mr. Cardwell's despatch of the 27th February, 1865, when the conduct of native affairs and the duty of self-proteotion were devolved upon the colonists of Nevr Zealand, directions were given for the immediate reduotion of the Imperial forces, with a view to its oonsequenfc entire removal ; and therefore the Colonial Government cannot justly complain that instructions should be given in December, 1866, to hasten the removal of the remaining troops, or alleged that at the end of nearly two years they were not prepared for this removal. Lastly : With reference to the concluding paragraph of the memorandum, I have to state that when charges are made against the Colonial Government or persons in authority in the colonies, _or transactions are reporbed in public journals which appeared to call for explanation, the course pursued by the Secretary of State has been to communicate such charges, and the sources of them, at once to the Governor for such explanation by the persons accused, or such other action, as the case may require. I see no ground for altering this praotice, or for considering that it is in any way open to the suggestion that itgives encouragement to secret calumny. — I have, &c, BUOKINGHA.iI AND CHANDOS. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B.