THE GOVERNOR AND MINISTERS.

11

A.—No. 1.

The Governor also believes that if a colony can only have operations carried on by being subjected to such imputations, it will be more likely to extricate itself speedily from its difficulties, by relying on its own resources, energy, and courage, than by depending on aid accompanied by remarks of this kind. He therefore would wish the assent of his Eesponsible Advisers, that he should inform Sir D. Cameron that the Colony will for the future carry on active operations from its own resources, and will make preparations to render practicable a speedy reduction of the force in this country, and that he should also communicate with Her Majesty's Government, and endeavour with their concurrence to carry out the proposed arrangements by which the Colony will hereafter provide for its own defence, the Colony in the meantime completing, in as far as it can from its own resources, the operations necessary for the subjugation of those Natives who still remain in arms. Government House, Wellington, 7th April, 1865. G. Geet.

No. 12. MEMOEANDUM by Ministers. In reference to certain statements made by Lieut.-G-eneral Sir Duncan A. Cameron, which have been communicated by the Governor to his Responsible Advisers, Ministers express their regret that the Lieut.-Greneral should have thought fit to attribute base and unworthy motives, and a culpable disregard for the lives of British officers and men, to the Ministry of .New Zealand, and by implication, to, Her Majesty's Representative in the Colony. They believe that, having regard to the character of the Colony (which it is their duty to uphold), and to their own, which, as public men, is the property of the Colony, it is impossible longer to accept assistance so unwillingly rendered. Nor indeed can it be hoped that the zeal and energy (which alone can secure success or lead to any useful result in operations in the field) will be displayed by any officer, however distinguished, in support of a cause which is branded by him with such severe reprobation. April Bth, 1865. Feed. A. "Weld.

No. 13. MEMOBANDUM by Ministers. Ministers have read and considered Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron's letter to the Governor, of 15th May, and His Excellency's reply of the same date. In their Memorandum of Bth April, Ministers referred to statements, officially brought under their notice by His Excellency, and which they do not understand to be disavowed by the Lieutenant-General. They thence drew certain conclusions and decided on a line of policy ; and they felt it to be their duty at once to give publicity to their decision, and to state the grounds upon which that proposed policy was founded. They see no reason for withdrawing either from those conclusions, or from that policy. Ministers regretted, and still regret, the opinions held by Lieutenant-General Sir D. A. Cameron, but they are not aware that they have reflected in unjustifiable terms upon his conduct. Wellington, 17th June, 1865. Fred. A. Weld.

No. 14. MEMOBANDUM by Ministers. The Ministers now at Auckland, having considered the letter of the Lieut.-General Commanding Her Majesty's Forces in New Zealand (dated 3rd May), on the subject of the Memoranda (4th March, 20th March, and Ist April, 1865,) which the Governor has communicated to them, submit to His Excellency the following remarks : — 1. That their Memoranda were published by Ministers in the exercise of a recognised right of His Excellency's Advisers to publish such documents in the form of a Parliamentary paper for the information of the members of the General Assembly, and not in the local newspapers ; and in the present instance they believe they were so published without previous consultation with His Excellency. 2. That Ministers do not perceive in His Excellency's Memorandum of 4th March, 1865, any quotation from any letter, public or private, but simply an announcement of the prevalence m some quarters of an impression which, groundless as it was, might yet, among ill-informed people, seriously aifect the character of the Governor, the Ministry, and the Colony, and which if it gained currency among the officers and men of Her Majesty's forces would tend materially to impair their energy and neutralize their efficiency against the public enemy, This impression His Excellency deemed it the duty of the Ministry to remove by such a recapitulation of the objects they had in view, and of the reasons on which the proceedings they advocated were based, as might remove all misunderstanding on these points from the minds of just and unprejudiced persons. 3. Mr. Weld's Memorandum of 20th March, 1865, was directed to this object, and neither is nor was intended to be an attack on any person. 4. The Governor having now communicated to them Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron's letter of 28th January, referred to by that Officer in his letter of 3rd May, in which they find him speaking of the operations in which he is engaged as " a miserable war carried on for the profit and gratification of the Colonists," Ministers frankly admit that necessity for a vindication of the Colony, which they questioned when the calumny came before them merely as a vague and indirect imputation ; and tender to His Excellency their thanks for his having impressed upon them this necessity at a time