THE OFFICIAL REPLIES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 869, 20 March 1869, Page 2

THE OFFICIAL REPLIES.

It will be remembered that after tho late massacre at the White Cliffs, the Provincial Council were called together and certain resolutions passed, which the members thought necessary for the safety of this Proviuce, and wore forwarded to the Colouial Secretary. We have been informed that the Speaker has received a reply from Mr. Stafford, to the effect that the Imperial troops will not for the present be removed from New Plymouth, and that His Excellency has not been advised to invite the services ofthe Volunteers of the Middle Island for garrison purposes in the Province of Taranaki. There is also a postcripfc to this letter, whioh, like a lady's contains the pith of the communication, aud is as follows :—": — " A body of one hundred men of the Armed Constabulary has been despatched to Taranaki from Wanganui, in addition to the force already enrolled iv the former district, and the Resident Minister at Auckland has been requested to have an additional body of one hundred men enrolled at the Thames from among persons connected with Taranaki, and to send them there." We may therefore expeofc to see fifty men arrive by the next steamer, if this is not some clerical error of Mr. Stafford's. In answer to the resolutions passed at the public meeting on the 2nd March, replies have been received by the chairmau, W. Northcroft, Esq. From his Excellency came a letter signed "Henry D. Pitt, Private Seoretary," in which that gentleman says, "I am directed by Governor Sir George Bowen to acknowledge the receipt of your communication ofthe 4th instant, and to inform yon that his Exoellenoy has referred it for consideration of his responsible advisers." The one 'from the Colonial Seoretary iB still more brief, being ismply an aoknowledgmentof the chairman's letter enclosing the resolutions, and is signed " Alex. Macdonald, for the Under Seoretary." This we suppose will be the last we shall hear of the resolutions, they having been politely shelved.