A.—Ho. 4.

upon that day will have a good effect upon them. lam more sanguine upon the subject than you are, and I hope that the end of this war is nearer than you think. I will answer the questions you have raised. With regard to your moving troops from Wellington and Taranaki, I think the understanding should be that you remove the troops from place to place as you think necessary ; you can with our present means of communication easily send Ihem back again if you find they arc more necessary at one point than another, or if I wrote to you to ask you to do so, and it will leave you at full liberty to act as you think best for the public service when you know that you have this power. Having said this, I of course entirely concur in what you have already done. The Government arranged at once to raise a troop of fifty mounted men of the Colonial Defence Force at Wanganui for you; the order will go by the next vessel. When that has been done, if you require a larger force, they will raise one to the extent of two troops of eighty men in the whole. A vessel of war will be stationed at AYellington for you. 1 am consulting the Government on the subject of placing Wanganui and the adjoining districts under martial law r, such a Proclamation would now require the signature of a Minister. If you continue to desire the thing, I have no doubt they will do it. lam debating the question of applying to England for reinforcements. I still hope we may do without them—everything looks quiet here. William Thompson has expressed a wish to meet me. The escaped prisoners are returning in large bodies to the Waikato from the North. Seventy of them have recently passed through this place on their way home. The country here appears in a more peaceable state than it has done for some years. The North of New Zealand need therefore now cause you no anxiety. I will write you another letter to-morrow ;in the meantime good-bye to you, and may all good fortune attend you. 1 have, Ac, Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron, X.C.8., Wanganui. G. Grey. No. 26. Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron to His Excellency the Governor. My dear Sir George,— Camp, Waitotara, Bth February, 1865. We crossed the Waitotara on the morning of the sth instant without seeing a native, and arc now encamped on the left bank of the river about a mile and a half from its mouth. I left more than half the force in the camp at Nukumaru. The " Gundagai" entered the river in the evening of the day we crossed it, bringing us provisions for several days, and she brought us a further supply this morning. As she can always cross the bar in fine weather, our communication by sea with Wanganui is tolerably secure. lam forming a depot here, and constructing a work for its protection, preparatory to our advance towards the Patea. I shall then probahly remove the remainder of the force from Nukumaru to this side of the Waitotara, giving up the communication by land with Yfanganui for a time, so that I shall have nearly the whole force and land i ransport available for service on this side of the Waitotara. I can always restore the land communication with Wanganui when necessary. My calling out part of the Militia and A Tolunteers at Wanganui has of course created dissatisfaction, the colonists there as elsewhere expecting to have nothing to do but to enrich themselves by the presence of the troops without any trouble or inconvenience to themselves. The Yoluntcer Cavalry, under Captain Cameron, positively refused to inarch to Nukumaru until Colonel Logan had expostulated with them; ar.d as we shall never get any good out of those gentlemen, I wish you could induce the Government to raise the Defence Force here to its former establishment. I hope the Commodore has been able to send a vessel to Wellington ; and it would be a great advantage to have one also stationed at the Manakau. We have not yet received the English mail, our existence being apparently quite forgotten at Auckland. What is the " Falcon" about; could she not have brought it ? Our not being able to answer any of our letters by this mail may entail inconvenience on the public service. We are altogether in a curious position—you at Auckland, the Ministers at AYellington, and I here, without communication with either of you for weeks together. I have, Ac, D. A. Cameron, His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Lieut.-General. No. 27. Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron to His Excellency the Governor. My dear Sir George,— Camp, Waitotara, 11th February, 1865. I am sorry to say that what I so much apprehended has come to pass : two persons have been murdered, namely, Mr. Hewitt, a settler who resided on the frontier, near the Pai-uri, and a soldier of the Wanganui Militia, belonging to one of the posts recently established on the f ontier. At the time I established the two posts which I mentioned to you in a former letter, I directed that the officer commanding the one at Mussen's should place a picquet at Mr. Hewitt's house if he desired such protection, but unfortunately he declined it. The soldier of the militia was out contrary to orders plundering a Maori settlement. Mr. Hewitt's body was found without its head, which has been carried off by the rebels. These two occurrences have created a panic throughout the settlement, and I hear that many of the settlers have already come in. If they come in from the settlements south of the Wanganui, we shall be in a terrible mess. I have sent a reinforcement of 150 men to Wanganui, and directed Colonel Logan, who commands there, to establish another post between Mussen's and the river. I fear that I shall have to send more reinforcements, which will put a stop to my operations. I therefore recommend that the detachment of the 68th at Auckland, or the headquarters of the 14th, if they can be spared, may be sent hero as soon as possible, and that not a moment bo lost in organizing the two C

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GOVERNOR AND LIEUT-GENERAL CAMERON.