MESSAGE, No. 17.

Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1854 Session I-II

MESSAGE, No. 17.

His Excellency the Officer administering the Government transmits to the House of Representatives copies of the correspondence alluded to in the Resolution of the 6th instant, No. 19, requesting the House to be furnished with "a return of all correspondence between Governor Grey and the Colonial Office, On the subject of the publication, in the Southern Cross, of Governor Grey's letter to the Bishop of New Zealand, dated August 30th, 1847, excepting such portions «f that correspondence as have been already printed in the Blue Book." R. H. WYNYARD. Government House, Auckland, 20th July, 1854-

(Copy.)

No. 85.

Downing-street, 12th December, 1849. I have received your Despatch, No. 95, of the 14th July last, in ■which you forward a letter from Mr. Brown, the Editor of the Southern Cross newspaper, containing some complaints against you, with reference to a letter which had been published by him in his journal, having been previously addressed by you to the Bishop of New Zealand, on the subject of the Missionary Land Claims. Your Despatch clearly shews the cause of the error under which you had been led to assume that Mr. Brown, in publishing the letter in his newspaper, had purposely suppressed a portion of it, and it is therefore due to him that he should be relieved from the charge made against him of having done so. You will acquaint Mr. Brown that, with this object, the present correspondence shall be included in the next series of papers which will be laid before Parliament relating to the affairs of New Zealand. You will, however, at the same time point out to him that, while I regret that he should have been exposed to an accusation which has since proved to be without foundation, namely that of having suppressed a portion of the letter in question, the injury is one which he has entirely brought upon himself by the very improper proceeding of publishing, without the consent either of the writer or the person to whom it was addressed, a letter of which he obtained possession in some surreptitious manner, which he still declines to explain. If the publication of the letter had been authorised by those who alone had the right to grant that authority, he would not have been exposed to the charge of which he now complains, and which is an accidental consequence of his own unjustifiable act. I have the honor, &c., (Signed) Grlt. (Copy.) No. 63. Miscellaneous. Government House, Auckland, July 10th, 1850. My Lord, — I have the honor to enclose a letter which has been addressed to your Lordship by Mr. Wm. Brown, of Auckland. As full information regarding the subject to which this letter relates, was contained in the enclosures to my Despatch, No. 95, of the l4th July, 1849, and in an extract therein transmitted from a letter which Mr. Brown had addressed to the Bishop of New Zealand, upon the 27tn June, 1849, it does not appear necessary for me to trouble your Lordship further upon the subject. I have the honor, &c., (Signedj G. Grit. (Copy-) Auckland, June 29th, 1850. My Lord, — On the 12th July last I had the honor of addressing a letter to your Lordship, complaining of an unfounded accusation made against me by His Excellency, Governor Grey, of having omitted an important sentence in a letter of His Excellency to the Lord Bishop of New Zealand, in publishing the same in the Southern Cross newspaper. To that letter I have received (through Hi* Excellency) your Lordship's answer, acquainting me that the correspondence on the subject would, as requested, be included in the next series of papers laid before Parliament, relating to the affairs of New Zealand. In communicating t® me this favourable result, His Excellency further acquaints me that while your Lordship regretted I " should have been exposed to an accusation which has proved to be without foundation, the injury is one which I had entirelv brought upon myself by the very improper proceeding of publishing, without the consent of the writer or the person to whom it was addressed, a letter of which I had obtained

possession in some surreptitious manner, which I declined aftetwards to explain " It is with great regret that I feel myself again constrained to address your Lordship on this subject ; but as the paragraph just quoted—purporting to have been wriiten by your Lordship — contains fresh charges against ine, wholly without foundation, I cannot doubt your Lordship's willingness to listen to my vindication, and to repair the injury which your Lordship, I feel assured, has unintentionally done me. Your Lordship, it would seem, has stated that I obtained the document alluded to in " some surreptitious manner, which I declined afterwards to explain." In reply permit me most distinctly to assure your Lordship that I did not obtain that document in a surreptitious manner, neither was I at any time aske i by His Excellency how it came imo my possession. An assertion onlv has been made against me, I can only meet it by an assertion in return ; but may add, that the circumstances of the transaction out of which this correspondence arises, bear out the accuracy of my statement. Hermit me here to recapitulate ihem :--When occupying a seat in the Legislative Council, in DJ47, hearing that His Excellency had written a letter to His Lordship the Bishop, requesting him to exert his influence with the Missionary Land claimants, in order to induce them to give up their lands,—and deeming this, as I did, a very improper means of attaining such an end, and as the result was calculated to affect deeply the interest of all the other land claimants. I made a motion in Council to have a copy of the letter laid upon the table. His Excellency thought proper to deny that he had written such a letter, and my motion fell to the ground, shortly afterwards a gentietnan furnished me with a copy of the said letter which I published in the Southern Cross newspaper, to the surprise of all who had been witness to His Excellency's denial of its existence. His Excellency afterwards thought proper to represent to your Lordship that the letter had been published in order to throw odium upon him and his Government, and that, (apparently from improper motives,) an important passage had been left out. 1 have satisfied your Lordship that this charge was without foundation ; as the copy so published was, verbatim, the same as the original letter. His Excellency, in forwarding to your Lordship the complaint which I m de of his conduct on this oicasion, would appear to have again misled your Lordship by a new and bolder assertion, —that I got a copy of his letter referred to in a surreptitious manner. 1 his 1 have already denied ; and the statement is the more credible when it is considered that there was no room for employing any such means; inasmuch as the document was, in its nature, a public one ; and, though addressed to His Lordship the bishop, was obviously intended for the Missionary Land Claimants generally, and was so communicated to them, without the slightest secrecy or reserve whatever. Indeed had any secrecy been enjoined. His Lordship's well known character for candour and openness of purpose, is a sufficient proof that he would have declined to undertake any service requiring the use of such unworthy means. It was not until His Excellency had denied the existence of the document, that it became necessary for him to invest it with the character of secrecy. But His Excellency further states that I declined to explain how the document came into ir>y possession. 1 his is likewise untrue. Were it otherwise, however, even then His Excellency would have been wholly unjustifiable in asserting that I had cbtained that document by surrepiitious means. As to the fact of publishing it without permission of the writer or the person to whom it was addressed. I would merely re-mark that the public nature of it appeared to me to justify the course I adopted ; nor was it to have been anticipated that the public business was carried on by means which the Government would desire to keep concealed. On receipt of the letter from His Excellency, containing these dishonourable and unfounded charges, the correspondence —which I annex — ensued ; and to which I respectfully solicit your Lordship's attention. It will therefore appear that I made every effort to ascertain whether the imputations so complained of had proceeded, spontaneously, Irom your Lordship ; or whether, as I supposed, they had been first suggested by His Excellency. But since this information had been studiously withheld, I have only the alternative left me of making this appeal to your Lordship for reparation. Ido so with every confidence that it will not be disregarded ; as it would not be doing justice to your Lordship as a man, far less to you as the responsible adviser, and the exalted ollicer of Her Majesty, to suppose that you would prefer such charges against even the humblest of ller subjects, unless founded in truth ; or that, having erroneously made them, you

•would refuse to render suitable reparation therefore. I attach the very greatest importance to the reparation which I solicit ; because independently of the individual injustice done to myself, in having such grave charges preferred from such h high quarter, there is a principle involved of the last importance to every British Colonist. Colonists, as your Lordship is well aware, are debarred from all direct communication with Her Majesty's Government. The only medium open to the injured and oppressed is through the Governor of the I olony,—a medium, which from its inbeient unfairness, places the character and fortunes of every complainant more or less at the mercy of the Governor; who may secretly and safely transmit the most defamatory statements against any one to Her Majesty's Ministers, Were this the fitting time or place, I might easily shew how greatly this dangerous power has been abused, and how much of Colonial discontent may be traced to its un-English exercise. I must, however, confine myself to one remark ; that whilst a system so subversive of every British klea of good faith and justice is tolerated, —a system which affords such scope for secret accusation, — which withholds every opportunity of defence to the accused, —whilst such a system is endured by a British Sena e, it behoves a British Minister to be doubly careful into whose hands so dangerous a trust is committed. These remarks are not made merely upon general principles. They have, unfortunately, a special bearing upon what has actually occurred in this Colony, and the sooner the system is exposed and put an end to, the better for the ends of justice, and for the good of both the governing and the governed. If personal charges are made by a Governor, let them be made fairly and openly, and the accused furnished with a copy of them, in order that his reply may accompany the charges to Her Majesty's Government. I shall not trouble your Lordship with any remarks on the appended correspondence, respectfully requesting attention merely to ihe somewhat extraordinary manner in which His Excellency conveys his readiness to make reparation, "if it was shewn that any expression had wrongly been made use of." This, I conceive, to be adding insult to injury ; inasmuch as His Excellency had but to refer to his own despatch to ascertain whether or not he had used the word "surreptitious" as applying to me,—whilst he well knew it to be impossible forme to get access to such information. Looking to the general interest involved in the present application, and in order that your Lordship may have the greater confidence in the accuracy of the facts detailed, I t >ke the means of giving the letter every publicity, by inserting it in one of the local journals,—a copy of which will be found appended thereto. I have the honor, &c., &c., &c., (Signed) Wm. Brown. Auckland, 20th May, 1850. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th instant, (communicating the answer of the Secretary of State to a letter addressed by me to him on the subject of an unfounded accusation made against me by His Excellency Governor Grey, of having omitted an important sentence contained in a despatch of His Excellency to the Lord Bishop of New Zealand, in publishing that despatch in the Southern Cross,) in which you inform me that Earl Grey has [acceded to my request, that the correspondence on that subject should be printed in the Blue Book. You further acquaint me that his Lordship had " directed that it should be pointed out to me, that the injury which I complained of had been brought upon myself by the very improper proceeding of publishing, without the consent of the writer, or the person to whom it was addressed, a letter of which I obtain possession in some surreptitious manner, which I declined afterwards to explain." Had his Lordship merely expressed his disapprobation of the act of publishin? the public document referred to " without the previous consent of the writer, or the person to whom it was addressed," I should not have felt warranted in making any observation in opposition to such an opinion ; but as this is coupled with the grave charge of having obtained the document referred to "in some surreptitious manner, which I declined afterwards to explain. His Lordship will doubtless excuse me for again seeking to vindicate my character from a fresh a

accusation equally unfonnded with the original one, out of which this correspondence arises. As it is impoossible to believe that His Lordship would m ake out such a charge against any one without the grounds upon which it rests having previously been communicated to him, I am constrained to suppose that the Despatch of His Excellency the Governot-in-Chief (accompanying my letter to Earl Grey) had been so worded as to warrant His Lordship in making the charge now complained of. I have therefore respectfully to beg that you will bring the matter before His Excellency, with a request that I may be furnished with a copy of his Despatch referred to, in order that I may discover whether or not it warrants the censure with which His Lordship his so unjustly thought proper to visit me. I may add that the document in question, referred to by His Lordship, was not obtained by me in any surreptitious manner, nor was I ever asked by His Excellency to explain how it came into my possession. If it has been deemed of sufficient importance by Earl Grey to censure me for that of which I am not guilty, I trust I may be excused for seeking to discover the source of His Lordship's error, and of proving to him that his censure* are wholly without foundation; as I cannot suppose that His Lordship will be less inclined to hear my vindication than he was to prefer such a charge again3t me. I have the honour, &c., &c. (Signed) Wm. Brown. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary. 101. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 22nd May, 1850. Sir ' — . . With reference to your letter of the 20th instant, in reply to mine of the 10th, communicating the answer of the Secretary of State to a letter addressed by you on ihe subject of His Excellency's letter to His Lordship the Bishop, I am instructed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you that the Government cannot enter into any further correspondence with you on the subject, or to furnish you with the copy of the Despatch you allude to, but any statement you desire shall be forwarded to the Secretary of State. I have, &c., (Signed) Andrew Sinclair. Wm. Brown, Esq,, Auckland. Auckland, 25th May, 1850. Sir— I have received your communication of the 22nd instant, refusing my application to be furnished with a copy of the Despatch of His Excellency the Governor occompanying a letter addressed by me to the Secretary of State, referred to in my letter to you of the 21st instant, and informing me that you cannot enter into further correspondence on the subject, but offering to forward to the Secretary of State any statement I may desire to make. Before I can take advantage of this offer, however, and though perhaps your last letter might be regarded as a negative already given, I deem it necesaary to put this beyond a doubt by preferring the present request to be furnished with a copy of the Secretary of State's Despatch so far as it relates to myself personally. I make this request because it contains, according to whdt you have communicated to me —an unfounded, dishonourable, and calumnious accusation against me, for which Earl Grey, or the real author of it, owes me reparation. But in demanding such from his Lordship, (who appears at present the calnmniator), I certainly have no wish, nor am I perhaps justified, in regarding him as the author till I receive from you his own expressions, or obtain your refusal to furnish me therewith. Although you have refused me a copy of the Despatch of His Excellency to the Secretary of State as solicited by me, I deem it necessary to enquire whether in

that r eapatch it was represented to His Lordship that I had obtained possession of the document referred to " in some surreptitious manner," or whether this expression was used by His Lordship without such previous suggestion. I need scarcely add, that it is from no wish to lead you into further correspondence on this matter that I again address you, but solely for the purpose of preventing blame being attached undeservedly either to Earl Grey or lo His Excellency the Governor. I have the honour, &c., (Signed) Wm Brown. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary. 112. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 4th June, 1850. Sir, — Referring to your letter of the 25th ultimo, acknowledging the receipt of mine of the 22nd, and requesting to be furnished with a copy of the Secretary of State's Despatch in reply to His Excellency's relative to the letter referied to in your letter of the 20th ultimo, I am instructed by the Governor to inform you that the document applied for cannot be furnished ; but that although no further correspondence can be carried on upon the subject, His Excellency has directed me to state that as he should himself sincerely regret if any expression has wronglybeen made use of towards any one, and would, if it was shown that such was the case, instantly cause any reparation in his power to be made ; and as His Excellency feels assured that Earl Grey would be actuated by the same feelings, lam directed to repeat that any statement or explanation that you may think proper to make in proof that the term has been erroneously used shall be immediately transmitted to the Secretary of State. I have the honour, &c., (Signed) Andrtw Sinclair, Colonial secretary. Wm. Brown, Fsq., Auckland. (Copy). No. 130. Miscellaneous. Government House, Wellington, September 25th, 1851. My Lord, I have the honor to enclose a letter addressed to your Lordship by a Mr. William Brown, a resident at Auckland. The subjects discussed in this letter have been already so fully reported on in my despatches noted in the margin, that it does not appear necessary to trouble your Lordship with any further observations regarding them. 1 have the honor, &c., (Signed) G. Grey. The Right Honorable Earl Grey, &c., &c. (Copy). Auckland, 28th August, 1851. My Lord, I yesterday had the honor to receive, by command of Hi* Excellency the Lieut. Governor. Your Lordship's reply to the letter of sth July, 1850, addressed by me to your Lordship, complaining of the defamatory

Enclosure— 35. 14 July, 1849. 6i. 10 July, 1850

charge made by your Lordship against me, in a despatch to the Governor of New Zealand, on the subject of a letter addressed by His Excellency, to the Bishop of New Zealand, relative to the Missionary Land Claims, which letter your Lordship charges me with having obtained the possession of " in some surreptitious manner which I declined afterwards to explain." Having pointed out to your Lordship the unfounded nature of this charge, I fully expected to have received in return a distinct retraction of it, but am now informed that your Lordship cannot alter the opinion which you have already expressed, as "I have not thought proper to explain the manner in which I obtained the letter which I published without the permission of the writer, or the party to whom it was addressed further than by stating that it was given mo by a 'gentleman' who lias since left the colony." Such beinc the case, I feel constrained to bring the subject once more under vour Lordship's notice, as I must attribute this result to the imperfect manner in which I had brought it before your Lordship, rather than to any unwillingness on your part to do me the justice of apologizing for an injury which your Lordship may have unintentionally inflicted. Permit me shortly to recapitulate the few material facts involved in this matter :—When a Member of the General Legislative Council here, in 1847, I moved for production of certain returns including amongst them the letter to the I'ishop of New Zealand, which His Excellency had written, seeking His Lordship's influence to prevail upon the Missionaries to give up their Land Claims. His Excellency denied the existence of such a letter. A copy of this letter was put into my hands, by a gentleman, which I published in the "Southern Cross" newspaper. His Excellency, apparently extremely irritated at this disclosure, wrote a despatch to your Lordship, complaining of the publication, and stating that I had omitted therein an important sentence, thus conveying the impression to your Lordship that I had garbled the document for the unworthy purpose of bringing it to bear against His Excellency. On becoming acquainted with this charge, at a distance of time, through the medium of the ' Blue Book,' I addressed your Lordship on the subject, proving that the published copy of the letter was verbatim with the original, that His Excellency's assertions were wholly unfounded, and requesting that my refutation of them should have equal publicity, through the ' Blue Book,' with the charges made against me Your Lordship acceded to this request, coupling it, however, with the remark, that I had brought the Governor's accusation upon myself by publishing the 'etter " without the consent of either the writer, or the person to whom it was addressed ; a letter of which I obtained possession in some surreptitious manner, which 1 declined afterwards to explain." 1 then brought this new accusation of your Lordship's under your notice, as already mentioned, but this you have declined to retract for the reasons now stated. To prove to your Lordship that these expressions are defamatory, and unfair. I need only call your attention to the fact, that the Governor's letter to the Bishop was not a private letter, but a public document, and about which, as His Lordship the Bishop remarked, "no secrecy was desired.'' His Excellency therein requested the Bishop to communicate its contents to the Missionaries, ('Blue Book,' 1850, p. 209.) thus affording prima Jacie evidence, in your Lordship's possession, and not to be rebutted without special knowledge to the contrary, that the letter was so far public that its contents could not have been surreptitiously obtained ; a charge which your Lordship has not scrupled to make without the smallest evidence to support it. Again. Because I published it without the consent of the writer, or the party to whom it was addressed, the propriety, or impropriety, of that proceeding cannot, however, in the slightest degree warrant the application to me, of having surreptitiously obtained it. Your Lordship speaks of my having declined to communicate the name of the party who furnished me with the letter. I have never yet been asked to do so, either by His Excellency the Governor, or by His Lordship the Bishop, the writer of the letter, and the party to whom it was addressed, though the latter went so far as to say that it had been, at one time, his inten-

tion to have made the request, but he never actually did so ; thus taking from your Lordship the only remaining ground upon which your Lordship base* the accusation against me. T . , v c 1 would now, therefore, again seek from your Lordship, that unqualified reparation for an injury which no man. however elevated his rank, ha# done an injustice, has a right to refuse to another, however humble his station. , In conclusion, permit me to say, that in case the name of the gentleman who furnished the copy of the Bishop's letter should still be of any interest, or importance, I will write immediately to the gentleman, now out of the colony, for his permission to communicate it, and have no doubt of its being at once granted. On obtaining it, I shall apprize your Lordship of the fact of having obtained such permission, and will engage, as a matter of courtesy to your Lordship, to acquaint you therewith, as soon as I have received your Lordship's retraction, liut I have a right to insist that the retraction should precede the conveyance of this information ; upon which I have shown that it in no way depends. I publish this letter (" Southern Cross" herewith enclosed) in order that the facts, well known to parties here, may be rebutted, should any of them be untrue. I have the honor to be, &c , &c., &o , (Signed) TV. Bkown. Right Honorable Earl Grey, II M. Principle Secretary of State for the Colonies. (Copy.) No. 8. Downing Street, 12th March 1852. Sir, I have received your Despatch, No. 130, of the 29th of September last, transmitting a further letter from Mr. W. Brown, with reference to the answer returned by Earl Grey to his letter of the sth July, 1860. You will acquaint Mr. Brown that I cannot interfere with the decision of my predecessor on the question to which his letter refers. I have, &c., (Signed) John S. Pakington. Governor Sir George Grey, &c, &c., <fc«. m n (Copy.) No. 14, Miscellaneous. Government House, „ , Wellington, January 15th, 1852. My Lord, I have the honor to transmit the copy of a Despatch, I have received from the Lieutenant Govvernor of New Ulster, enclosing a addressed to your Lordship by a Mr. TVm. Brown. In the Despatches of th© numbers and dates specified in the margin, I have supplied all the information it appeared to me to be necessary to afford on the subject of Mr. Brown's letter. I hare the honor, <^c., The Right Hon. Earl Grey, (Signed) G. Grby. &c., &c., &c. b

JCaolosure— N«. 96. 20 November, 1851. " 9». 14 July, 1849. " 6S. 10.h,1t, 18*0.

(Copy),

No. 96.

Auckland, 20tli November, 1851. Sir, Agreeable to a request on the part of Mr. Brown, 1 do myself the honor of transmitting to your Excellency the enclosed packet received from that gentleman for further transmission to Earl Grey. I have the honor, &c., (Signed) R.H. Wynyard, Lt.-Governor. His Excellency Sir George Grey, K. C. B„ Governor-in-Chief (Copy). Auckland, 18th November, 1851. Sir, with reference to a letter dated 28th August, last, addressed by me to your Lordship, complaining of the charge made by your Lordship against me, of having obtained in " some surreptitious manner" the copy of a despatch addressed by His Excellency Governor Grey tr> His Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand, requesting the influence of the latter in effecting a settlement of the Missionary Land Claims. In that letter I promised to seek the necessary authority for giving up the name of the gentleman who furnished me with the copy of the despatch so addressed to the Bishop. I have now obtained the gentleman's consent, and have the honor of forwarding to your Lordship (under sealed cover) his letter communicating the same. Should your Lordship be no longer unwilling, as I am entitled to suppose from the tone of your former letter that you are not, to withdraw the charge against me complained of, the writer's name (of the enclosed letter) is at your Lordship's disposal. Should you, on the other hand, decline to withdraw that charge, I must request that the letter may be destroyed unopened. In my letter of the 28th August I mentioned that it was only out of personal courtesy to your Lordship that I acceded to your Lordship's wish for a disclosure of the name. But as I was entitled to expect that the retraction should precede that disclosure, it will therefore be assumed as a matter of form (if the reparation be accorded) that it take precedence of the disclosure depending upon it. 1 have caused a copy of this letter to be inserted in the " Southern Cross" newspaper (forwarded herewith) with a copy also of the letter of the gentleman referred to, suppressing only the writer's name. I have, &c., (Signed) W. Brown. r l he Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c., &C.j &c. . (Copy.) No. 14. Downing Street, 10th February, 1853. Sir, I have to acknowledge your Despatch, No. 14, of the 15th January, 1852, transmitting a letter from Mr. Brown to Lord Grey, enclosing a sealed

" Southern Cross."— No. 455, 18th Not. 1851.

communication purporting to be that of the name of the gentleman who had furnished him with the copy of a letter from yourself to the bishop of New Zealand which he inserted in the "Southern Cross." 2. You will inform Mr. Brown that after the lapse of time which has occurred, and observing that Mr. Brown treats this as a personal question between himself and Lord Grey, who has ceased for nearly a year to hold the seals of this Department, I do not consider that I am called on to take any steps in this matter, and that I therefore return the sealed letter to him unopened. 3. 1 wish to inform you that although the duplicate of your Despatch was received here as long ago as August the 7th, the original containing the enclosures has only just reached me. I mention this circumstance (which no doubt has occurred through some accident) in order to account for the great delay which has occurred in the correspondence, Mr. Brown's letter being dated the 18th of November, 1851. I have the honour to be,&c , (Signed) Newcastle. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. &c. &c, New Zealand (Copy ) No. 95. Miscellaneous Government House, Auckland, July 14th, 1849. My Lord,— I have the honour to transmit a letter addressed to your Lordship by aMr William Brown. I should, under ordinary circumstances, have shrunk from noticing any statement proceeding from this person, and, however gross the 3 charges made against me had been, should have relied upon all right-minded persons feeling the same contempt for them that I do, and should therefore.not have deigned to give any reply to them ; but as this case is a good illustration of the attacks I am subject to from this person, I will notice this one instance ; but for the future nothing shall induce me to reply to his attacks. 2. I was first, about two years ago, accused by this Mr. Brown of having written a letter to the Bishop, requesting him to use his clerical influence to enabte me to accomplish what was described as an unjust political object. I then irdignantly denied, as I do now, ever having written a letter upon the terms of which such a construction could be justly put. I believe every one now admits that ihis charge was an unjust one. 3. In order, however, to support it, a copy of my letter to the Bishop was _ obtained by Mr. Brown in some indirect way, without either my own knowledge . or consent, or that of the Bishop, as will be seen from the enclosed letter from his i, Lordship ,i 4. 1 his letter obtained in this suspicious manner was published by Mr. Brown in his newspaper, and my Assistant Private Secretary brought me the published copy, and called my attention to the fact, that a passage in the letter I had written to the Bishop was omitted in the published letter. I, perhaps hastily, concluded that people who would not hesitate in an indirect manner to obtain a copy of this letter, and to accuse me of having made an application to the Bishop which I should have regarded as disgraceful to his Lordship and myself, would not have hesitated to go one step further,and to omit publishing a passage in the letter alluded to. 5. Your Lordship will see from the enclosed letter from the Reverend Mr. 1 hatcher, who was, at the time alluded to, acting as my Assistant Private Secreo tary, that the fault of the omission in the letter rested however with him, and not with the Editor o( the paper, and this circumstance would immediately have been discovered, it it had not been trom the indirect manner in which a copy of this letter had been obtained for publication, without the knowledge or consent of the

Enclosure, No. 1. Mr. Wm. Brown to Earl Grey, 12 July, 1849.

Enclosure, No. 2. Bishop of New Zealand to Colonial Secretary, 12 July, 1849, with Extract of Letter from Mr. Brown to the Bishop, 27 June, 1846.

Knclosure, No. 3. Eev. F. Thatcher to Colonial Secretary, 12 July, 1849.

Bishop or myself. The error of this transaction therefore rests on those who were "uilty of this first improper proceeding. ° I have, &c., (Signed) G. Grey. The Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c., &c. (Enclosure, No. 1.) Auckland, New Zealand, July 12th, 1849. My Lord, — My attention h s been lately called to a Despatch in which the Governor of New Zealand accuses me, the avowed editor of the "Southern Cross," of having omitted an important sentence in publishing a letter to the Bishop by himself. < In vindication of my character, I am constrained to address your Lordship, ( to relieve myself from the charge of having garbled, for an unworthy purpose, a document entrusted to me —an accusation the lowest and most derogatory that ( can be imputed to a public man. ) Let me be suffered, for the sake of clearness, briefly to recapitulate the circumstances that have led to the result On ihe ! 4th September, 1847, from my place in Council, I gave notice of motion for the production of certain papers connected with the Land Claims, among which was specified the copy of a Despatch recently addressed to the Lord Bishop of New Zealand by the Governor, in which his Excellency had requested his Lordship to use his influence with the Church Missionaries to induce them to relinguish their lands. His Excellency, among other observations in answer, said, that "he had no recollection of making any request such as had been referred to"—an assertion which he repeated after ihe orders of the day had been disposed of. On the 1 Sth, I brought forward the motion, according to notice. It was met by his Excellency's assertion that " since the last meeting of Council, he had carefully examined the copies of his several letters to his Lordship, but that he could find no terms in any of them that bore the least resemblance to what had been alleged as grounds for the motion." On the 21st, still confident in the accuracy of my information, I made a final effort to attain my end, by bringing the matter forward, no longer in the shape of a motion, but of a request. It was again negatived in like manner as before. I moved for this correspondence in consequence of the Governor having refused to give any information as to the grants or class of grants which the Government intended to disturb, the withholding ot which was operating most iujuriously upon the country by disinclining many to cultivate who would otherwise have expended both money and labor upon their properties, and for the production of the forementioned dispatch in particular, conceiving that his Excellency was not warranted in thus seeking to attain a political and by means of clerical influence. I have no wish to disguise the fact that my supposition of undue influence was based on insufficient grounds, having been subsequently made aware that the character of this letter and the cause of its being written had been misapprehend , cl by me and now freely and candidly acknowledge my mistake. But the very blameU-ssness of the letter only increases my surprise at the course which his Excellency thought fit to adopt when requested to produce it. Why he should have ever desired what could have been so easily justified I cannot tell, unless it be that when taken by surprise the desire to equivocate overbore his better judgment, betraying him into a false position which regard for appearances constrained him to maintain on the subsequent occasions. Meanwhile a copy of the letter had been communicated to me to prove the < - truth of my affirmation in Council that such a document really did exist. I made 1 it public, a proceeding which I still think perfectly unexceptionable notwithstanding the inuendo thrown out in his Excellency's Despatch, and the reflections

Blue Book, 1848. Gov. Grey to Karl Grey, No. 1268.

Southern Cross, Oct 2, 1847.

G orer not' Grey to Earl Grey, No. 126,8.

which are understood to have been cast by him upon certain of the Church Missionaries whose cognizance of my having obtained it he chose must unjustly to assume. liere I supposed that the matter had come to <tn end, but I was much deceived. To my extreme surprise I learned a short time since that the first untruth was followed up by another which had been prudently kept a secret from me that a sentence had been fabricated for the purpose of inducing your Lordship to suppose that it had been wilfully suppressed by me. The only answer 1 can suffer myself to make to such a charge is a simple and flat denial of its truth, the letter as printed in the " Souihem Cross" is word for word as it stands in the original. Should his Excellency be still bold enough to persevere in h s assertion the means of substantiating it are within his reach, and I challenge him to the proof. The passage which he gives is an interpolation a device almost too ill judged to be credited were it not paralleled by his unaccountable attempt to mislead me in the Council Chambers. Not content with the single accusation his Excellency snl joins another equ lly untenable that the publication of this letter " was made the medium of a most violent and unfair attack upon the Governor and the Bishop." In this endeavour to link up the Bishop's name with his own to find out a cause of grievance common to both, to entrench himself behind the hi»h reputation of his Lordship he has attempted a better conceived manteuvre though with equally ill success. Rightly judging that a conjoined attack upon the Bishop's conduct would have destroyed the force of my strictures upon his own he did not hesitate to eharge me with it, believing himself secure in the long period of time that must elapse before chance of denial could be afforded me. I affirm that no such attack was ever made. ?o far from stacking, I spoke of the Bishop in the highest terms of eulo. y, dwelling on my " admiration for his talents, his zeal, his energy, his sincerity, his singleness of purpose, and for the good works he had already done" coupled with an expression of regret that he should have been "dragged into any connexion with a purely political matter so far from his field of duties and so infinitely beneath the dignity of his office." By a most palpable distortion of words the Governor directs against His Lordship the reproach that was pointed at himself, putting the finishing strjke to his own misrepresentations by making it the groundwork of an additional slur upon me. To guard against being again accused of garbling a document, I have appended to this le ter the entire article from which the foregoing passage is extracted, indulging a hope that your Lordship may take the trouble of perusing it and of satisfying yourself as to the nature of its contents I have now two requests to press upon your Lordship's notice — Firstly—l ask that my answer to the charge should be allowed equal publicity with His Excellency's attack upon my character, by publication in the Blue Book. And secondly, that His Excellency should be required to communicate to me an unqualified retractation of his statement; unqualified I say, for a mere attempt at explanation, such as I fully expect under colour of a mistake, I cannot be expected to accept. This indeed I put not so much as a request but as a claim upon your Lcrdship's sense of justice. It is necessary not for my own satisfaction only but for that of the community, that a check should be placed on this mode of managing the Home correspondence. Every man here who has a character to lose, and has the misfortune to differ from His Fxcellency in political opinion lives in continual dread of secret aspersions upon his name. Some as in this instance having been made public are refuted, but a general impression obtains that there is much in the back ground which has never come to light. Your Lordship may think that I have used strong language, yet it is not written in the first heat of anger after discovery of the open insult that had been put upon me. I have deliberatey weighed my words, I feel that lam thoroughly justified in the use of them, that I could have said no less without sacrificing the respect I owe to myself, and I know that I shall be upheld in them by the universal voice of public opinion in New Zealand. I have, &c., (Signed) Wm, Brown. The Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c., See., &c.

Southern Cross, October 2.

(Enclosure/ No. 2.) St. John's College, 12th July, 1849. Sir.— I have the honour to acknowledge your letter of this day, with a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. W. Brown to Lord Grey, and I have no hesitation, in complying with his Excellency's request, that I will '-forward copies of any correspondencs which may have passed between myself and Mr. Brown. So far as I am concerned, I place the correspondence in his Excellency'* hands to use in any way which he may think proper. It will be seen in my answer (No. 2) to Mr. Brown, that his Excellency'! letter to me of 30th August, 1847, was not given to Mr. Brown with my knowledge or consent. The words of my letter in which I enclosed the above letter of His Excellency's, were these. Pursuant to this resolution (i.e. of the Church Missionary Society), I placed myself in communication with his Excellency Lieut. Governor Grey, and have received from him a letter which I send herewith for your perusal, to be returned to me at your leisure. From the above extract, it will appear that I considered his letter to me as the result of communications from the Church Missionary Society, and as having therefore no political or legal bearing whatever. I have the honour to remain, Sir, Your most obedient and humble Servant, G. A., TL ti 11 Zealand; Honorable the Colonial Secretary. (Enclosure, No. 3.) St. John's College, ~. _ July 12th, 1849. - le ply to your letter of this day's date, enclosing the copy of a letter addressed to you by Mr. Brown, and also the copy of a letter addressed by him to Larl Grey and requesting me to explain how it happened that certain words were omitted in a letter addressed by the Governor to the Bishop during the time that I was acting as his Excellency's Assistant Private Secretary, while they were entered in the letter-book and in a copy of the letter which was transmitted to the Secretary of £ tale. I have the honour to state that the words in question follow the words "not that I wish to impose upon your Lordship the trouble of even reading this letter, if you do not desire it," and* are "much less of expressing any opinion upon it.' That they were in his Excellency's original draft, that they were inadvertently omitted by me in making the transcript of that draft, which was signed by his Excellency and forwarded to the Bishop, that I entered the letter in the office letter book from the original draft, and that I believe I also wrote from the original draft thecopv of the letter which was forwarded to the Secretary ot State ; but of this last I am not certain, as Mr. Thomas, who was then Private Secretary, sometimes made the copies of documents which fprmed enc osures to espatches. I may state, however, that in forwarding copies of documents to the Secretary of fctate, the responsibility of their being correct ested entirely with me, and that they were never seen by his Excellency, neither if 6 . the Co P les ln tlie letter book examined as to their correctness, except by myffs „ cas 1 c in question, I compared the letter as published in the Southern Cross with the copy of it in the office letter book, and pointed out to nlrt. the , T 1 ? 810 " ° f the words above quoted, which I knew formed 1 ot the original draft which I found entered by me in the copy in the lette r

book, but which I very much regret ndw to find, on examining the copy signed by his Excellency, and forwarded to the Bishop, were, by ray inadvertence omited in that copy. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient Servant^ (Signed) Fredk. Thatcher. The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, New Ulster.