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the Government had no authority over them. " We," they said, " can be our own Magistrates; we do not want any sent by the Queen or the Governor: they have nothing to do with us ;1 et them attend to their own people." In fact, they regarded the Queen as the head of a people occupying isolated portions of territory in the Island ; with whom they had occasional intercourse: but as possessing—as of right—no authority over them. The extent to which they subsequently went in asserting their independence, is illustrated by the following abstract of speeches made in my hearing at a Runanga held at Turanga on the 21st of May, 1858. This was the most influential and numerously attended meeting which occurred during my stay there. Rutene Piwaka, afrer complaining that while the first prayer book published had contained a prayer for the Rangatira Maori and their families, in the second edition the prayer was for the Qut_en and the Rangatira Maori, and in the third edition the prayer was for the Queen and Her family alone, said, " Let the Pakeha pray for Queen Victoria if they like; but we will not call her our Queen and Governor : it is by this that the Pakeha is putting the Queen above us as a potae (cap) ; and we are putting the potae over ourselves by our own foolishness; for if one has a dispute with another he takes him to the foreigner to have the case tried. If a man in England do wrong, does a foreigner decide it? No ! whatever be his country or his rank, he is taken to the English Magistrate to be tried : but here, if there is a dispute between Maoris, or with Europeans, we say let us go to the Magistrate—to the foreigner—that our dispute may be settled." Paratene Pototi said: "We are not the remnant of a people left by the Pakeha ; we have not been conquered: the Queen has her island, we have ours; the same language is not spoken in both: if we are united the Pa will be destroyed, and we shall go back joyfully." Kahutia said: " Let the Magistrate be under the Queen if he likes ; we will not consent to Her authority • we will exercise our own authority in our own country." Rawiri Pahi said: " All that we will receive from the Europeans is Christianity; we will have nothing lo do with their Queen." Several others spoke in the same strain; not one supported the Queen's authority. I have given these speeches because I believe the real feeling of the Natives to be represented by them. Subsequent events have not led me to believe that any change of opinion has taken place. I may observe that, notwithstanding what was said about the prayer for the Queen, it only resulted, as the Rev. L. Williams informed me, in a little grumbling when the prayer was used. At this time the " King" movement at Waikato was being organized; but the Turanga people had, from jealousy of Waikato, refused to join the party, although they discussed the propriety of appointing a " King" of their own, and were only prevented doing so by the mutual jealousy existing among the principal Chiefs. The result of my labours amongst them was, that they admitted the superiority of the law to their own customs, and frequently had recourse to the Court for the settlement of their disputes; but they did not recognise the authority of the law, and yielded obedience or refused it as it suited their purposes. Their conduct towards Europeans generally was such as was to be expected from a people who believed the former to be living amongst them on sufferance: they were exacting in their demands, and arbitrary in their mode of enforcing them; but personal violence was scarcely ever offered to Europeans. I left Turanga before the questions connected with the Waitara disturbances were much discussed by Natives there ; they had been applied to by Wi Kingi for assistance, but had decliued to render it, asserting that it was necessary for them to remain at home and take care of their own land. They are very jealous of their land, and have a strong disinclination to part with it. Regarding the Government as antagonistic to their independence, they viewed it with suspicion. They would not admit that it was actuated by a desire to promote their interests; but considered its every act to result from an intention to overreach them, or from a desire to conciliate them which they attributed to fear. They did not understand their position as subjects of the Crown. It appeared to me that while they had a fair idea of the rights and privileges which that position gave them, they knew nothing of the obligations which it involved; they had not been taught that obedience to its authority was compulsory and might be enforced, but had conceived the notion that, as the only argument which had been used in its support was an appeal to their reason, they had the right of exercising their freewill by accepting or rejecting it as they might deem best. Ihe position of the Ngatikahungunu people at Wairarapa is very different to that of the other portions of the tribe to which I have referred as occupying the more northern districts; for while the latter have refused to alienate land to the Crown, with the exception of about sixty acres which I obtained from them as a homestead for the Magistrate —and while they are in numbers to the F.uropean population as twenty to one, the former have alienated a large extent of land, and are to the European population as one to two. They are divided into two classes, " Queen's" and " King's" Natives, as they are called. I hesitate to call tlie former loyal, as they are more strictly neutral; for although, up to the present time, they have not joined the " King" party, they are not prepared to yield to Her Majesty the obedience of subjects; they are subjects only ot the "lead, induce, persuade" policy; and I believe many of them refuse to join the "King's" Runanga, simply because it possesses a coercive authority, while we possess only a nominal one. The "King" Natives are, of course, violent nationalists; they repudiate the obligations contracted by the Treaty of Waitangi, and maintain their right to independent Government. They contend, that they have been cajoled into an appearance of submission to the Crown which they never intended, ami now repudiate.

11. S. Wardell, Esq.

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ON THE ARRIVAL OF SIR GEORGE GREY.