E.—No. 7.

No. 3. COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM GOVERNOR SIR GEORGE GREY, X.C.8., TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, K.G. Government House, Auckland, New Zealand, 20th October 18G2. My Lord Duke, — I have the honor to transmit an Address to Her Majesty, which has been adopted by the Legislative Council of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and which it respectfully requests your Grace will cause to be laid at the foot of the Throne. I have, &c, G. Grey. His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.

No. 4. COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, K.G., TO GOVERNOR SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B. [Received by the Governor at Taranaki, Bth May, 1863.] Downing-street, 26th February, 1863. Sir,— In a Memorandum presented to you on the part of your late Ministers, and bearing date Bth October 1861, they declared the existence of the Native Secretary's department "free as it was from all control on the part of the Responsible Ministers," to be " a very serious evil;" representing that, while the general government of the Colony was conducted by Ministers responsible to the General Assembly, the executive functions of Government in relation to Native Affairs were exercised by an officer who was under no such responsibility, direct or indirect, but received his instructions from the Governor himself, who, therefore, to that extent, retained the management of Native Affaire in his own hands. You informed me in your Despatch No. 36* of 30th November, that you concurred with your advisers—that, under the existing circumstances, it was in your opinion quite impossible that Her Majesty's Government could be advantageously carried on under such a sj'stem, and that you had immediately arranged to consult your Responsible Ministers in relation to Native Affairs in the same manner as upon ail other subjects, and in like manner to act through them in relation to all Native matters ; you urged the impolicy on the part of the Home Government attempting to interpose the Governor or any other protective authority between the natives and the General Assembly, and you recommended that the arrangement thus made by you should be left in permanent operation. I replied as follows :.—" lam ready to sanction the important step you have taken in placing the management of the natives under the control of the Assembly. T do so partly in reliance on your own capacity to perceive, and your desire to do, what is best for those in whose welfare I know you are so much interested ; but I do it also because I cannot disguise from myself that the endeavour to keep the management of the natives under the control of the Home Government has failed. It can only be mischievous to retain a shadow of responsibility when the beneficial exercise of power has become impossible." I have now received your Despatches noted in the margin, containing what may be considered as the comments of the colonists on the decision of the Home Government. The Despatch of the 2Gth of August encloses certain Resolutions of the House of Representatives, which declare that the ministers are to accept, "at your request," what, at the suggestion of their predecessors, you had in fact already transferred to them—the executive administration of Native Affairs. They further declare, that the decision on all matters of native policy is reserved to the Governor; and on the second declaration, which is divested of all substantial meaning by the first, they ground the conclusion that the power thus accepted "shall not be held to bind the Colony to any liability past or future, in connexion with Native Affairs, beyond the amount authorised or to be authorised by the House of Representatives." I can readily imagine that you must have been somewhat embarrassed by the communication to you of these singular resolutions, so ambiguous in every respect except in the evident intention of avoiding those powers and responsibilities which, until they were conferred by the Imperial Government, the Colonial Legislature and Ministries had repeatedly demanded. You state, however, that you have consented to act in their spirit until my instructions should reach you, being satisfied from your knowledge of your Ministers, the settlers and the natives, that whatever may be in theory the nature of the relations existing between yourself and your Advisers, the practical result will be the same, and that Her Majesty's Service will not suffer from the arrangements now adopted. You do not consider the relations thus established as satisfactory, but you anticipate that when the difficulties now subsisting shall be brought to a close, the General Assembly will, if the Home Government should desire it, assume the entire responsibility of Native Affairs. I entirely approve of the course which you have adopted. In the position in which you were

No. 103.

Printed in the Journals of the Legislative Council, 1862—p. 89 et seq.

No. 22.

• Vide Sessional Papers, 1862, X. No. 1, Sec. 11., pp. 34, 35.

No. 89, Angnst 26,1862. No. 98, October 6, 1862. No. 100, October 10,1862 No. 108, October 20, 1862

2

COLONIAL RESPONSIBILITY