E.—No. 2o

places, the latter of which will be the point where one steamer will usually be stationed. At the saino time to clear out all hostile natives at present residing between the Auckland isthmus and the lino at the river and fortified posts first above-mentioned, which together cross the island. Lastly, to confiscate the lands of the hostile natives, part of which lands will be given away and settled on military tenure, to provide for the future! security of the districts nearer Auckland, and the remainder sold to defray the expenses of the war." The Governor encloses a tracing, No. 1, which shews the details of this plan, in reference to the features of the country. There is, perhaps" some Blight ambiguity in the language used in the Ministerial statement of the Governor's plan, which might have been avoided had he written it himself; but this does not appear to be material, and is removed by a consideration ot the context. Ministers expressed their cordial concurrence in these plans of the Governor, and expressed their willingness to take upon themselves the responsibility for their adoption, on the understanding that they would be carried out as a whole. Ministers went on to advise the Governor that they considered that a general notice should at once be officially published, that the claims to land of any natives who may take up arms against the Queen's Government will be forfeited. The Governor did not think it right to act on this advice in the form in which it was tendered ; but on the 11th July, 1863, he warned the Chiefs of Waikato that those of them who might take up arms against Her Majesty would forfeit the right to the possession of their lands, guaranteed to them by the Treaty of Waitangi, which lands would be occupied by a population capable of protecting, for the future, the quiet and unoffending from the violence with which they are so constantly threatened. The whole of these plans had relation to the protection of the wealthy and prosperous settlement of Auckland. The Governor had applied for reinforcements to enable him to carry them out. The strength of these reinforcements was carefully adjusted to the extent of the plans, and the Governor conceived that the means at his disposal would have enabled him to execute them in such a time that he could have given that aid to the Southern Settlements to which they were entitled without undue delay, and that a fair proportion of military force, and of the means voted by the General Assembly for the settlement of the existing difficulties, would have remained for the adjustment of affairs in the Southern settlements, after these plans had been carried out in the North. It will presently be seen that if it is remembered that Raglan was an existing European settlement, these plans of the Governor differed in no very material degree from those which the Colonial Treasurer states he explained in England. The Colonial Treasurer, in his memorandum of the 29th of September, alludes to a conversation stated to have been held with the Governor in December last. The Governor has been unable to recall to his recollection this conversation in the form in which it is stated. It is difficult, after the lapse of so many months to recall the words of a conversation, and the precise import which such words may have had at the time, and what were the exact points to which they related. It will be seen presently how great this difficulty must be, when it appears that even in the same memorandum the Colonial Treasurer has apparently misapprehended the meaning of the words of a printed financial statement of his own to which he has made a reference. The Governor can only say that in his belief any conversation which he had with the Colonial Treasurer in December last to which he has alluded, related entirely to the Governor's own plans, and to the settlement of the Waikato country; and that. he regrets any such misunderstanding should have taken place between himself and the Colonial Treasurer with regard to a conversation. If such importance was to be attached to this conversation, :is to make it a matter of future reference, the Governor regrets that a written memorandum was not procured from him, which would have prevented any future misunderstanding from taking place. The Colonial Treasurer also says, in his Memorandum, that the Governor, in his Minute of the 25th June, 18(54, states, " The first time the Governor was made aware, that no part of his plan would be acted on, and of the points at which it was proposed to locate the Waikato militia, was by the Minister for Colonial Defence, at Pukerimu, on the loth of April last," and the Colonial Treasurer further adds as follows : " Amongst the documents sent to England by His Excellency (in December last) for the information of the Secretary of State, was the financial statement of the Colonial Treasurer, in the concluding part of which the proposed frontier line from Tauranga to Raglan was pointed out, together with the positions at which Ministers proposed to locate the different regiments of the Waikato militia." The Governor encloses the extract alluded to from the financial statement of the Colonial Treasurer, as pointed out by himself, an inspection of which, when placed opposite his Memorandum of the 29th of September, will, the Governor thinks, shew that there is nothing in the financial statement which could have led him to conclude that it pointed out positions at which the different regiments of the Waikato militia have been located. The Colonial Treasurer states that at the Colonial Office in England he repeatedly traced on the map the frontier line from Raglan to Tauranga. The Governor transmits a tracing shewing the frontier line as traced by the Colonial Treasurer himself. The Governor thinks that the Colonial Treasurer has perhaps not reflected that even a few miles difference between the points at which these Regiments were to lie located might make a vast difference in the cost of maintaining a frontier, and that as a great part of this cost was at least for some time to l)e borne by Great Britain, and that as it was a question which involved the distribution of the entire force in the country, the precise localities at which these Regiments were to be located was a point on •which the Governor should have received the earliest information, and regarding which he should have been consulted. He still thinks the distribution of these Regiments faulty, and believes that his original plans if carried out would have resulted in a large saving and in increased prosperity to the country. He also transmits another tracing shewing the line as drawn from Kawhia to Tauranga, as laid before the Governor on the 17th of May, as the district of country which the Ministers wished the ixovernor to embrace in the first Order in Council, which was to bring the native territory within the

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NATIVE POLICY, CONFISCATION, &c.