E.—No. 7a.

whilst responsibility rests upon himself, and that there can consequently be no rapidity of decision or vigour of action in Native affairs in this most important crisis of the history of the Colony, the Governor begs Ministers to accede to the advice of Her Majesty Government by acting on the principle that the administration of Native affairs should remain as it now is, with them, and that the Governor will be generally bound to give effect to the policy which they recommend for his adoption, and for which they will be responsible. The Governor believes that the General Assembly will, under the present circumstances of the Colony, entirely approve of Ministers doing this ; for it would be found inconvenient at the present crisis to dislocate the existing machinery for the management of Native affairs, and to bring back the actual administration of them under the Governor. The plan that the Governor recommends involves no change. It simply gives the Ministers, who have now all the real power, the means of using that power vigorously and promptly, whilst their rapidity of decision and action must necessarily be quickened by the sense of the great responsibility that will rest upon them. The Governor will continue, whenever asked to do so, to give them his advice to tho best of his ability, and to afford them every support in his power in the discharge of their duties. G. Geet. Taranaki, May 16th, 1863.

No. 3. MINUTE foe nis excellency. The Governor's Minute of the 16th instant recapitulates the following circumstances : — That, when His Excellency arrived in the country he found the Native Department entirely under his control. That, at the urgent request of his|then]Ministers, he gave up the control of this Deprrtment to them. That they, as an equivalent, undertook to assume the entire responsibility of Native Affairs. That the Assembly, when it met, objected to this arrangement, and proposed to place the responsibility in question upon the Governor. That the Governor then felt that if the responsibility were thrown back upon him, the power (i.e. the control of the Native Department,) should also be restored to him; for the Assembly could not mean, while they rejected the Ministerial part of the contract, to hold the Governor to his part of it. This was shewn by the wording of the second resolution, which says, that Ministers should undertake the administration of Native Affairs only if His Excellency requested them to do so, and not as a matter of right. Ministers admit that this statement of facts, and this view of the arrangement, is perfectly correct and just. His Excellency goes on to say, that the Native Department has, however, in fact, remained entirely under the control of his Responsible Advisers. Ministers beg leave to observe that, on coming into office, they found the Native Department under their control, as described by His Excellency. This was tacitly allowed to continue as a Departmental arrangement. But, if Ministers had understood at that time that such an arrangement would be viewed by the Governor as being an unfair limitation of his own authority, so long as responsibility was placed upon him, it obviously would have been their duty to have requested the Assembly to reconsider the position of His Excellency and his Advisers. But they understood that His Excellency did not view the administration of affairs by Ministers in this light, because His Excellency, in his first Despatch on these resolutions, in informing the Duke of Newcastle that he had consented to act in their spirit, until His Grace's decision should be received, remarked that, whatever might be in theory the nature of the relations existing between himself and his Advisers, the practical result would be the same. At the same time, Ministers do not deny His Excellency's clear right under the resolutions to have resumed the Departmental administration at any time, if he found that Her Majesty's service required it. Ministers now learn that the experience of this system, since the meeting of the Assembly, even under conditions to which His Excellency is pleased to refer in terms which Ministers must gratefully acknowledge, has satisfied the Governor that it works badly, and prevents him from acting with vigour and promptitude in the execution of his policy. They can only, therefore, express their readiness to concur in any arrangement whatever, as to the conduct of the Native Department, until the next Session, which will remedy the evils so necessary to be removed at the present crisis. But with respect to the acceptance by them of the position in which the Duke of Newcastle wishes to place them, Ministers must with great respect observe that they consider the resolutions of the House of Assembly as absolutely precluding them from adopting the course recommended by the Governor. If, during a time of peace, the Assembly was unwilling to take the direction of Native Affairs out of the hands of Sir George Grey, His Excellency's present Advisers

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COLONIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN NATIVE AFFAIRS.