E—No. 1 Sec. 11.

In her usual course she had called here again on her way from Nelson sometime last week, aud had brought your letter, but I did not receive it until a day or two after her having sailed again, in consequence of which I lost the opportunity of sending you a few lines by her in return. In reference to Sir George Grey's reappointment to the Governorship of this unfortunate and distracted Colony, I can truly assure you that no one's feelings aud sentiments can be more fully in accordance with your own, as expressed in your letter, than mine. When, a few weeks ago, it was, through mistake, reporteel that His Excellency Colonel Gore Browne had been reappointed Governor, I must confess that witli all the high regard and esteem I most sincerely entertain for hira personally, my heart almost failed me ; for it seemed to me like, as it were, a last blow in a direction calculated to push the state of thiugs past all hopes of being remedied, or even remediable. Even now as it is, with the immediate prospect before us of Sir George Grey taking the helm of affairs into his hands, I feel not as yet able to breathe as freely as I would wish. Of two things I feel certainly most assuredly confident, viz.:— 1. That had the management of the Colony, at least as far as regarded all Native questions, hitherto continued all along in the hands of a Sir George Grey, both the colonization of this island, and the civilization of its aborigines, would have been, though gradually yet steadily, advanced, by following such a course of policy as would at the same time have preserved the peace and quietness of the country, and thus would have saved us from having been drifted into all this late and present calamitous state of things. 2. That if it still remains within the reach of any human capability to rescue the country from a general outbreak of a war of races, and thus to save it from the incalculable wreck and ruin which would inevitably accrue therefrom on both sides, and that too, probably, for a long protracted period of time to come; if once more, unfortunately, the sword should come to be unsheathed; then, without doubt, Sir George Grey is the man, and perhaps the only man now living who, under God's guidance and assistance, will prove equal to the task of restoring loyalty and loyal confidence to the Native mind, and to devise and carry out such measures, and to effect such an arrangement of matters, as will not only give back to the disturbed land audits inhabitants a timely peace and a reconciliation, but also place such peace upon such a just and proper foundation as will render it secure for the future to both Europeans and the aborigines. But, then, this is just the very difficult and critical point where the most momentous question of the present time remains until now, hanging as it were, in a very anxious and doubtful suspense: tlie question as to whether any such desirable arrangement, accompanied and followed by any such salutary results, will any longer be found attainable by any pacific, and at the same time, practicable ways and means ? God grant it may ! The reappointment of Sir George Grey appears to me, at all events, as being a signal interposition of His Providence for good. Still, I must confess withal, that the more I contemplate the existing state of things, with a due reference to all that (more especially since the year 1853) has preceded it, as having had a tendency, both of a negative and of a positive character, and as having exercised an influence to, either directly or indirectly, almost irremittingly urge onward the development of matters to such a crisis and to such a state of growth and maturity, as has at length become realized, and iu which things now remain before us, —I feel almost compelled to yield to the more or less positive conviction that (more especially, perhaps, here in Taranaki) the attainment to any such pacific arrangement and settlement of affairs appears to have grown now almost beyond possibility, unless that, to the most strenuous efforts of a superior wisdom aud tact, be added a considerable amount of conciliatory concessions on the part of His Excellency, such as respecting whose practicability I do not feel competent to express any opinion of my own. Perhaps in no other part of the island have the Natives, from the beginning and throughout until now, had so little opportunity afforded them as has been, all along the coast between here and Whanganui, for seeing anything of a positive character done for them or in their behalf, either on the part of the Government or the settlers, from which they would have derived any clear and definite idea or any satisfactory assurance of the true and genuine nature and design of Her Majesty's established Government, in as far as it is intended to include them, to have regard to them, and to benefit them equally with all the rest of her subjects. Yet all the while this is a matter which necessarily requires to be very palpably demonstrated before it can be rightly and sufficiently apprehended and appreciated, so as to win the confidence and affections, aud to secure the real loyal attachment of a people like these aborigines. Neither the Taranaki nor the Ngatiruanui tribes have ever had the honor and gratification of a Governor's visit among them iu either of their respective districts. His Excellency Sir George Grey, certainly, when residing here for a short period during the time of his former Governorship over this Colony, had seriously contemplated an overland tour hence through those districts to Whanganui, &c, but. in consequence of a protracted and severe illness, he had been obliged to relinquish his plan. Again, in 1859, His Excellency Governor Browne had some intention of then taking a journey Southward through the Taranaki and Ngatiruanui country, but, unfortunately, he too failed in carrying his purpose into effect; and this was far more to be deplored than it may have appeared to be at the time. Not only had the Natives all along the coast heard of his intended visit, and were therefore in high expectation of seeing him among them, and of having a korero with him, but, moreover, it was just then the time when a Governor's visit was most needed and most to be desired, and when it might as yet have proved possibly of an incalculable benefit. It is true I subsequently told the Natives that the cause of his not having come was, as far as I had heard, his having been taken ill here. It soon came out, nevertheless, that they attributed his keeping aloof from them to a far different cause. Until up to the middle of January, 1859, the Taranaki tribe had, in a firm and most decidetl manner, rejected all the repeated overtures which had been made them by the Waikatos during all

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TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.