PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 861, 27 July 1867, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

We extract the following correspondence from the printed despatches laid upon the table of the Houses of Parliament ; with a copy of which we ,have been courteously furnished by the Colonial Secretary. The despatches we reprint are those winch contain reference to the affair at Omarunui,Jn this province— Copy of a despatch from the Right hon. the Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. I . Downing-street, Dec, 28, 1866. Sin,— l have to acknowledge your despatch No. 105, of the 15th of October, in which you urge a re-consideration of the decision adopted by the Secretary of State for "War that the Head-quarters of General Chute should remain at. Auckland. The immediate question raised by your despatch appears to have long since practically settled by the removal of General Chute's Head-quarters to Wellington, in accordance with your " wishes ; and my Despatch No. 49, of the Ist of December, will liave, I hope, removed some misconception which I think led you to attach so much importance to General Chute's presence in your own immediate neighbourhood. These misconceptions, however, are so evident in the despatch before me that I feel obliged to notice one or two passages in it. You state your opinion that the decision taken by the Secretary of State for War is likely to. entail serious disaster on the Colony and a large expenditure on Great Britain. I am most earnestly anxious to disabuse you of any expectation which may remain in your mind that the Imperial government will allow itself to incur large expenditure, or any expenditure beyond that which may be involved in the maintenance of a single regiment of infantry, in protection of the colonists of New Zealand against the native inhabitants of the Islands. By the act of my predecessor in this office', the management of native affairs was transferred to the local government, and the duty of self protection was devolved upon the colonists of New Zealand. That duty they have deliberately adopted. . Thecolonial Government have beenallowed to exercise that control by way of extensive confiscation and otherwise in a manner to which the home government, as Mr. Cardwell has stated, if responsible for the consequence of their actions, would not have given their sanction. They are not inclined to repudiate the pledges on the faith of which this freedom of action has been accorded to them or to evade its legitimate consequences. On the contrary, complaints, have actually' been made that Her Majesty's government were keeping troops in the colony against the wishes of the local government. In this state of things I must request you most clearly to understand that the troops (with the possible exception which I have noticed) will be withdrawn and will not be restored. The colonists will be expected to do that which they can do, which they have promised to do, and which I am bound to add they show no disinclination to do — namely, to provide for their own defence. I earnestly trust that there is no party in the colony which looks to the support of British arms in any future native war, or at least that no such expectation will be allowed to influence the policy of yourself or your advisers. If any colonial government were to involve itself in such a war, in reliance on military assistance from this country, they might plunge the colony, for a time at least, into disasters which it is needless for me to contemplate. lit another our despatch, you observe thatthe sudden removal of so large a body of troops from the country circumstanced like New Zealand, is a very critical operation. This is perfectly true. But I must add it is an operation which has not been imposed upon you. It was in February, 1865, that General Cameron was instructed to send home from New Zealand five of the regiments then in the colony. We are now at the end of December, 1866, and I am not apprised that the British force in the Islands is reduced to a single regiment, such a withdrawal therefore can hardly be termed sudden. | Finally, I must observe that while you thus appear to cling to the expectation of continued assistance from this country, your own reports, or rather the absence of reports from you, show how little you recognize any continued responsibility to the Imperial government for the conduct of the war. While in your despatch of the 15th October, you inform me that a Trooper of the colonial -forces had been killed by some hostile natives, you leave me to learn from the newspapers that in the neighbourhood of Hawke's Bay, a body of natives who refused to give up their arms had been attacked, by the colo- ! nial forces in their Pa (which is said to have been unfortified), and. driven into the bush, twenty-three of them boing killed and a like number wounded, and that a native village on the West Coast, after being summoned to surrender, was attacked by a colonial force, and, escape being cut off, about thirty or forty persons were killed.

In the account before me this last transaction is described as " the most brilliant affair of this guerilla war." Meantime your own despatches would hardly lead me to suppose that any recognized warfare was in progress. I need hardly observe that if it at any time were alleged in'this country that these affairs, described by the colonial Press as brilliant successes, were in fact unwarranted and merciless attacks on unoffending persons, I have no authentic means of reply. I have, &c., Caenaevon. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Copy of a despatch from Governor Sir George Gray, X.C.8., to the Right hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. Te Whcnuku, Nov. 10, 1866. My Loed, — Owing to my absence from the Seat of Government, in this disturbed part of the country, I have not received the official copies of the letters which contain reports of an engagement which took place between Her Majesty's Colonial Forces and the rebel Natives, on the 12th ultimo. 2. A copy of the Government Gazette of the 20th ultimo having reached me, I lose no time in transmitting it for your Lordship's information. 3. From it you will gather that a body of armed Natives came down into the District of Napier, the population of which consists of persons engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, upon whom a small body, of armed rebels, unless immediately checked, might have inflicted the most ruinous injury. This body of Natives, composed of Hau Hau fanatics, it now appears intended to have attacked the Town of Napier. 4 Your Lordship will, however, find that His Honor Mr. M'Lean, the Superintendent of the Province, ordered operations to be undertaken by the Local Forces, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Whitmore, which were most ably arid gallantly carried out by that officer, and the officers and men under his command, and resulted in the most complete success,

and that, the Province of Napier is consequently again in a state of security. I have, &c, - . ' Gr. GrHEY. The Eight Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. Copy of a despatch from the Right lion, the Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Downing-street, Feb. 25, 1867. Sic,— l have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch Wo. 106, of the 10th November, enclosing for my information, in the absence of official documents, a copy of a G-overnment " Gazette" containing the particulars of an engagement which took place on the 12th ol October last between Her Majesty's colonial forces and a body of armed rebels who were encamped in the district of Napier, I am glad to receive this account of the dispersion of the Hau Haus who had appeared in this neighbourhood, and who were threatening the safety of the town itself. j The measures which were taken by the Superintendent of the Province for the expulsion of'these fanatics appear to have been necessary for the security of the district, and to have been prompt and vigorous without being premature, while the military operations would appear to. have been conducted with skill and gallantry. . lam also glad to receive your satisfactory explanation of your not having reported these proceedings at> an earlier date. You will observe that when, in my desi patch of the 28th December, I called your attention to this subject, I had before me a despatch from you which showed that j you were still at Wellington on the 15th ! of October/ tw6 days after an account of the transaction had been published in the " Hawke's Bay Herald." I hate, &c, Carnarvon. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Copy of a despatch front Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. Queenstown, Otago, March 4, 1867. My Loed, — I beg to be. permitted to advert to the two concluding paragraphs of your Despatch No. 56, of the 28th December last : — (see ante.) 2. Your Lordship will, 1 trust, pardon me for saying that I think it impossible for any man to read this' language, addressed to himself, without feeling deeply hurt, and I feel the more so in my own case because I can assure you that your Lordship has written under an entire mistake, and that I have done nothing to merit the censure inflicted on me. 3. In the first place, I understand the Editor of the paper to which your Lordship alludes to have used the terms " this is the most brilliant affair of this " guerilla war," to the whole of the late war in New Zealand, and not as referring to any new warfare, the knowledge of which I have kept back from your Lordship. 4. In the next place, I would say with all respect, and only in my own defence, that I could not have sent to your Lordship any account of the affair at Napier by the same mail by which your Lordship received the news by the public prints to which you allude, inasmuch as it did not reach me in time, and this fact arose from no indolence or self-indulgence on my part, for I was engaged in putting down a local disturbance which had arisen between Wanganui and Taranaki, and in doing my duty to Her Majesty to the best of my ability. 5. I have not my Despatch-book here to refer to, but I believe that immediately a Gazette reached me containing the accounts, of this iransactian,.X-sen±-flopifis of the letters in it to your Lordship. But at that time I was living a very hard life, without any convenience for writing, and I cannot tell whether I may have been compelled to delay sending these papers on to your Lordship until I could obtain such conveniences : I was, in fact, in a private soldier's tent, with few more conveniences than a private soldier has-. 6. I certainly did not attempt to give your Lordship the means of showing that the affairs at Napier were not, in fact, unwarrantable and merciless attacks on unoffending persons, because it never entered into my head to conceive that any persons could so describe them to your Lordship ; in fact I could not have believed that anyone Would have attributed, without inquiry, merciless acts to Mr. M'Lean, the Superintendent of Napier, for I have known him well for more than twenty years, and have always found him a most kind, considerate, and merciful man. I should have thought, if I had ever reflected on such a subject, that even if such a description of the events at Napier had been given to your Lordship as that alluded to in your Despatch, that explanations would then have been called for, and that the time would then have come when it would have been necessary for me to call for any information which would have been necessary to enable your Lordship to show that those affairs had not, in fact, been unwarrantable and merciless attacks on unoffending persons. 7. Such expressions having been used in a public despatch must, I think, create in all persons' minds a belief that some grounds exist for thinking that the authorities at Naj)ier have been guilty of the offences named. If grounds for such a belief exist in your Lordship's mind, I earnestly entreat that they may be stated, and that justice may be done in the matter. 8. With regard to an affair at some village on the West Coast, to which your' Lordship also alludes, as no name or date is given, I am uncertain what even can be described by you. I can only guess, and I think rightly, that it is an affair which took place at Pungarehu. 9- X may hare omitted in several instances to forward a narrative of affairs which took place during the operations of a war extending over several years. All reports of such events, or copies of them, went to the Military Authorities, who reported direct to the Secretary of State for War in terms of which I had no knowledge, and I often have felt an unwilling- j ness to send reports on affairs which might conflict with theirs. 10, If the affair at Pungarehu is that to which your Lordship alludes, and I have no doubt that such is the case, then I would say that I have visited that village with an armed force since the affair alluded to took place ; that its inhabitants, instead of being unoffending persons, contained amongst their number some of the worst and most desperate characters in New Zealand ; that the village itself is the largest native village I havo seen ; that the force which attacked it was very small, and that instead of escape being cut off ! from the people of the village it was very nearly cut off from our own small force, I nothing but their determined gallantry carrying them through the - aftair. In truth, their escape was a very narrow one. I have, &c, G. Grey. The Eight Hon; the Earl of Carnarvon. [A very able memorandum by , responsible ministers, upon the same subject as the last despatch, will be republished in next Herald.]