E.—No; 4

No. 1. THE llO>*. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY TO THE RESIDENT MAGISTEATE, WANGANTJI.. Colonial Secretary's Office (Native Department), Auckland, 15th July, 1564. Sir — I have received this mail serious complaints from Colonel Logan, the Agent of the Government at Wanganui, of a want of co-operation on your part, and he also forwards copies of correspondence between himself and you relative to the transfer of the prisoners taken in the late action at Moutoa, which are marked on your side by an entire absence of that courtesy which is due from one officer of the Government to another, and particularly towards one filling the position in which Colonel Logan stands both in Her Majesty's and in the Colonial service. It is a subject of much regret to me that I should have been so frequently obliged to express my dissatisfaction at your inability to appreciate your proper position and functions. It is impossible that the public service can be satisfactorily conducted if the officers of Government in one place stand in such relations towards each other as you appear to have established with Colonel Logan. Should this unsatisfactory state of affairs continue, it will be my duty to advise His Excellency to remove you from the office which you now hold. In the hope, however, that you will see the necessity of acting differently, and being willing to believe that your past conduct has been partly owing to your not understanding what your position is, I shall now give you instructions, which I trust will enable you to do so, and prevent the necessity of my taking a step which I should much regret to be obliged to do. 1. As regards your functions as Besident Magistrate under the Native Acts, you will make it your careful study to keep within the limits prescribed by those Acts, and under no circumstances to conceive yourself justified in exercising such arbitrary powers as formed the subject of remark in my letters of sth November, 616, and 9th November, 653, and which are equally unconstitutional and inexpedient. 2. In your capacity of local agent for the Government, a function which devolves necessarily to a certain extent on any Eesident Magistrate in Native Districts, you will take every opportunity and exercise the utmost diligence to obtain information as to the state of mind of the Natives, their acts and intentions, and report all events occurring in your district in connection with them which may appear of sufficient importance to interest the Government. Except, hawever, in this way, you will take no action of what may be termed a political character without express instructions from this office, from His Honor the Superintendent, or from the local agent of the Government at Wanganui for the time being, and you will take all such action as those officers may require you to take ; subject only to this exception, that if they should require you to exercise powers as a magistrate which you have no legal right to exercise, you will decline to do so, and refer the matter to me by the earliest opportunity. I have too much confidence in His Honor and Colonel Logan to believe that there is much necessity for making this exception but cases have occurred lately in which military officers, not well acquainted with the laws of the colony, have called on magistrates to do acts (such as closing the store of a trader) which they had no legal power to do, and on their refusal to do which, they were supported by the Government, as you will be under similar circumstances. But it is only in extreme cases, such as that I have instanced, in which you would be justified in declining to give your assistance, and that with your utmost zeal and ability, and in the most cordial spirit of co-operation to the officer under whose authority you are now definitely placed. 8. Tour official reports and returns you will forward as heretofore. Copies of this letter are forwarded to His Honor the Superintendent of "Wellington and Colonel Logan. I have, &c, John White, Esq., E.M., ~W. Fox. "Whanganui. No. 2. THE EESIDENT MAGISTEATE, WANGANUI, TO THE nON. COLONIAL SECRETAET, WANGANUI. "Wanganui, 26th July, 1864. Dear Mr. Fox, — I am extremely sorry that the position between Colonel Logan and myself should be such as to merit your serious disapprobation, and can only offer a little explanation to show the posi-

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE SPREAD OF THE HAU lIAU SUPERSTITION AMONG THE MAORIES.