E No.—4

No. 1. THE PEIYATE SECEETAET TO MR. PARRIS. Government House, Auckland, December 20th, 1860. Slß,— I am commanded by His Excellency Governor Gore Browne, to bring under your notice the following passage which appears in a speech addressed by Dr. Featherston to a Public Meeting held at Wellington on 24th of November. " I will mention one important fact that will stagger " most of the believers in the justice of the war. I have myself seen a letter from Mr. Parris, " stating that he was sorely beset to enter into a conspiracy to deprive William Kingi of his much " coveted land at Waitara. That letter was written by Mr. Parris to the Bishop of New Zealand." The Governor desires me to request that you will be good enough to inform me whether the statement thus made by Dr. Featherston is correct, and if so, to furnish me with such explanation of the matter as you may wish to make, in order that any erroneous impression of the facts may be sivoided. Your immediate attention to this is requested, in order that a reply may be sent by the " Cordelia" on her return to this place. I have, &c., F. G. Steward, Private Secretary. Robert Parris, Esq., &c, &c, &c. Taranaki.

No. 2. MR. PARRIS TO THE PRIVATE SECRETARY. New Plymouth, December 21st, 1860. Sir,— I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, requesting to be informed whether the statement made by Dr. Featherston to a public meeting held at Wellington on the 24th November, respecting a letter written by mo to the Bishop of New Zealand be correct, and in reply to inform you, that when the Bishop of New Zealand was here in 1858, during the time Ihaia and Nikorima were besieged in the Karaka Pa by Wiremu Kingi, I accompanied him, Mr. Ironside, Mr. Whiteley and Miv/jßiemenschnoider on a visit made to both parties, with a view to arrange terms of peace between them, in which, however, we failed. On the Bishop leaving the settlement, he requested me to keep him informed on the subject of the feud. I must now quote from my letter to the Native Secretary in September last, in which I have recorded a history of the circumstances about which I wrote to the Bishop, premising that I have no copy of the letter, as it was a private communication, and must have been surreptitiously obtained from the Bishop, who, I am convinced, would never have published private correspondence, or have so perverted it. " When Ihaia, Nikorima and their party were besieged in the Karaka Pa at Waitara, and were " in a most miserable plight, Mr. Whiteley suggested to me that I should try to arrange terms of peace, " on the following basis, namely, that the besieged should be allowed to vacate the Pa, and that the " besiegers should then destroy it. I availed myself of the suggestion, and obtained the consent of " Ihaia and Wiremu Kingi, the former to leave the pa, and the latter to destroy it, and not follow them " any further; and shortly after, in the middle of the night, Ihaia's party took aloud farewell of their pa, " but their places were immediately occupied by his Wanganui and Mokau allies. They thus tried to- " take advantage of arrangements which I had attempted to make for their preservation, and but for ' : my opportune arrival, and discovery of the ambush, would probably have succeeded. " I was much blamed by the newspapers of the Province for communicating this intelligence, but " no man with one spark of honor could, under the circumstances, have acted otherwise." My letter to the Bishop of New Zealand alluded to these attacks of the local press, and those of many of the settlers, who were desirous of acquiring land by any means, and who viewed the frustration of the ambush as inimictl to land purchases. But it did not allude to any action of the Government, nor to Teira's block of land, which had not then been offered for sale. As it is now more than two and a half years ago since it was written, and as I have no copy I cannot offer any more particular explanation. I can only add, that the statement as rendered by Dr, Featherston is uotrue, and that I am convinced I did not write that which was not the case.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND AND MB, COMMISSIONER PARRIS;