A.—No. 5,

Enclosure to No. 49. Captain Luce, 8.N., to His Excellency the Goveenob. Sib,— H.M.S. " Esk," Auckland, New Zealand, 26th May, 18G5. In compliance with your requisition of the 18th instant, I despatched Captain Fremantle in H.M.S. " Eclipse" to the Bay of Plenty. He returned this day, and I beg to forward for your information his letter of proceedings. I have, &c, Sir George Grey, X.C.8., &c. J. P. Lttce, Captain. Letteb op Proceedings. Sib,— H.M.S. " Eclipse," at Auckland, New Zealand, 26th May, 1865. Since leaving Auckland, on the morning of the 19th instant, in compliance with your orders " to act in any way that might conduce to the apprehension of any of the parties implicated in the murder of Mr. Volkner," I have to inform you that we communicated with the following places in the order named —namely, Whakatane, Opotiki, Ohiwa, Wangaparawa, Eau-ko-kore, To Kaha, and Te Awanui. The summary of the information we have gained is as follows : —We have ascertained that Kereopa and a considerable body of the Opotiki Natives under the Mohi-Mohi are now inland of Ohiwa, in the TTrewera country en route to Taranaki; that Patara, accompanied by about 20 Taranaki Natives, was at Eau-ko-kore, where I saw him on the 24th instant, but is now, 1 trust, on his return to Opotiki; that Eparaima, the half-casto who put the rope round Mr. Volkner's neck, was at Te Awanui yesterday, where he succeeded in escaping from our men after being, as I believe, wounded ; and that many of those more immediately concerned are still at Opotiki, where I trust that the result of our operations during the past week will have concentrated all those persons more immediately implicated in Mr. Volkner's murder. I now proceed to give a detailed account of what occurred at each of the places I have named. At Wliakatane —I landed with Mr. Fulloon on the morning of the 20th instant, and communicated with the chief Aponui, who gave us a good deal of information, and as an earnest of his goodwill in our cause his son accompanied us to Opotiki. —AVe anchored off the bar there on the morning of the 21st instant, and landed the chief Tiwai in the river; at 3 p.m. we re-embarked him, having just pulled up the river and round the village, in doing which we were not molested. Only two or three Natives met us either time, and their conduct, although not exactly hostile, was at any rate unfriendly. Having ascertained through Tiwai that several of those implicated in the murder were at the village of Pcnau, on the beach about a mile and a half from the entrance of the river, I thought it would be possible to surprise them during the night. At 2 a.m. I landed in the river with a party of about sixty men, and we proceeded along the beach to our destination. On arriving at the village it seemed deserted, and at the same time several Maoris were observed to be watching us. Supposing that our design of a surprise was frustrated, I ordered a retreat, at the same time cautioning our advance and rear guards to scour the sandhills on our left to guard against an ambuscade. About half a mile from the boats a portion of our advanced guard discovered some Natives behind a wood pile, who fired at them. Their fire was immediately returned, and two Maoris fell. On our side Lance-Corporal Corker received a severe flesh wound in the arm. The enemy then disappeared, leaving a musket behind them. We have since heard that two chiefs were missing the next day ; but neither that night nor the next morning, when I landed with Lieutenant Boughey to search for a revolver which had been dropped, could we find any bodies. After this skirmish we re-embarked without further molestation; and the next morning, having recovered the missing revolver, I left for Ohiwa —where Aponui's son next wished to be landed. On sounding in going in and out, I found that at least two and a half fathoms could be carried over the bar at high-water, and that inside there is plenty of room ; that evening we anchored off Te Kaha —but as it was blowing fresh from the westward we were unable to land, and on the morning of the 24th proceeded to take shelter in Wancjaparawa. —An old whaler called Tumei came aboard, and told us that Patara and about twenty Taranaki Natives were at Eau-ko-kore, only two or three miles off, intending to march to the East Cape in a few days. The next morning I landed with Mr. Fulloon, Lieutenant Boughey, one or two others, and accompanied by Tiwai we walked up to Eau-ko-kore, to communicate with the chief Te Hata, and see what could be done towards securing Patara. Te Hata promised to be at all events neutral, but was evidently rather afraid of Patara, who arrived in the course of the forenoon surrounded by armed men, and wished to know what we wanted. Finding that it would be difficult to do anything with the small force at our disposal, we were obliged to be satisfied with insisting on Patara's return to Opotiki; and as Te Hata backed us up, he was obliged reluctantly to acquiesce, although he denied any complicity in the murder. Patara appeared quite prepared against a coup-de-main, and, confident in his strength, he held a hunting whip under his arm, but nad evidently a pocket pistol in each pocket. Finding that we could do no more at Eau-ko-kore, at 4 a.m. on the 25th I left for Te Kaha. —Landed there at daylight, and saw the chief Kape, and hearing from him that William King was at Te Au-anui, we went on there, and on William King's coming on board, he told us that Eparaima, the half-caste was living in a whare close to the beach. Tiwai having volunteered to go and point him out, I got two of our seamen, armed with revolvers to accompany him, disguised as Maoris, and they landed in a small boat, with orders to take him, dead oi^ alive. The ruse was entirely successful, and Eparaima suspected nothing until one of our men took him by the hand. He succeeded in shaking himself clear, however ; and although wounded and grappled with by the other seaman afterwards, he succeeded in escaping. I landed immediately with a boat's crew, and we searched the bush for a long time, without success. lam much vexed at his eluding us, but there were many women round him,

51

ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.