E.—No. 2,

C. I fear that I cannot now prevent a war, by acting in the manner I think justice required, in regard to the land at the Waitara. I take great blame to myself for having spent so long a time in trying to get my responsible advisers to agree in some general plan of proceeding. I think, seeing the urgency of the case, I ought perhaps to have acted at one:', without or even against their advice ; but I hoped, from day to day, to receive their decision, —and I was anxious, in a question which concerned the future of both races, to cany as much support with me as I could—indeed I could not derive its full advantage from what I proposed to do, unless I did so. I believed that the violent of that party of the natives who thought their conquest and degradation would, inevitably, ultimately be attempted by the European race, were desirous to hurry on a war before we were prepared for it; and that they were most anxious to make the Waitara the cause of it, as uniting so many sympathies in their favor, —So anxious are they to do this, that the evil-disposed of the Waikato tribes are holding William King violently in a state of captivity in their territory, in the hope that his people will not dare to come to any arrangement with us regarding the Waitara during his absence ; but I had hoped that a few days more would elapse before any such disastrous event would occur as has taken place. These are the only excuses I can offer for not acting with the promptitude I now think I ought to have done. I have, however, still this hope left, that the shocking nature of the wholly unprovoked murders now committed may strike with shame and horror the better disposed amongst the native race, and thus prevent them from confounding the troubles which must result from these murders, with the disputes which have arisen regarding the land at the Waitara. I have the honor to be, &c, &c., G. Grey. His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.

Enclosure 1 in Despatch No. 2. MINUTE ADDRESSED TO HIS EXCELLENCY BY MINISTERS ON THE PROPOSED ABANDONMENT OP THE WAITARA PURCHASE. Ministers Lave carefully considered the Governor's minute of April 22nd. They wish, in the first place, respectfully to observe, that in their minute of the 20th instant, they did not intend to argue a case on behalf of the European Colonists against any of Her Majesty's subjects of the Native race, but simply to call the Governor's attention to the state in which the natives of Taranaki had existed for many years previous to the Waitara purchase, and which renders some decisive interference by Government imperative. Ministers trust that nothing in their minute would countenance the imputation that they intended to justify the desire on the part of any one (if such desire, as His Excellency believes, exists) that war should be made for the acquisition of native territory. His Excellency's present advisers have always believed that the real quarrel between the Government and the natives concerned in the late insurrection, was not whether the title to a particular piece of land was good or bad, —but whether any natives, in case of a dispute between them and the Government, might resort to arms to resist the course the Government pursued. The colony, as a whole, never cared for the purchase of Waitara—only a few have any interest in it. Had the colonists at any time believed that the war was being carried on to obtain land, Ministers are firmly persuaded that the judgment of the Assembly and the whole voice of the settlers would have been against its prosecution. The views which the Governor attributes to some of the Taranaki settlers (the whole body of whom do not constitute one-fiftieth part of the European population of the colony) have never found an advocate in the Assembly, and would be rejected throughout New Zealand. It is quite true that Ministers believed, and even with the new facts which have recently transpired relating to the purchase, they see no reason to abandon the belief, that the war at the Waitara was the natural result of a previous combination among many powerful tribes, to prevent the further alienation of land to the Crown, and thus to oppose a barrier to the further spread of colonization. But against a combination even for that object the colony would not have desired to see force employed, so long as its effects were confined to the property of the combining natives. The Assembly believed in 1860 that the time had come when dissentient natives ought to be protected by the Queen's Government from the oppression which was threatened by a rival authority, and that it was to uphold that rival authority at all risks that the war was joined in by the Waikato tribes, who were disputing—not the validity of Teira's title—but the authority and jurisdiction of the Crown. With respect to several statements of the natives as to the origin of the war, recapitulated by the Governor, Ministers are desirous that they should not be understood as acquiescing in their truth, merely because they abstain from a refutation of them. Ministers now understand the Governor to have come to the following conclusions :— I. That it is hopeless to look for any success in the attempt to induce the natives generally to submit the case of the Waitara land purchase to a mere investigation of title. 11. That so deep-rooted a feeling exists on this subject in the minds of the natives, that the whole race would engage in a general and simultaneous war upon the several European settlements of the Northern Island, if any further war should be engaged in by Government on account of the Waitara question. 111. That the new facts which have lately transpired relating to the Waitara purchase—viz., firstly, that an agreement existed among the members of the tribe that the pas south of the Waitara should be occupied as places of security for the tribe, which agreement had never by general consent been put an

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THE WAITAEA.