A.—No. 4.

and what may have been done in former times, Colonel Mould and myself are of opinion that blockhouses constructed of materials prepared beforehand, or redoubts with huts in them arc to be preferred to stockades, particularly as it is desirable that the men should be uuder cover in the winter; and it is to be regretted that no attention was paid to the suggestion I made to you several months ago in regard to the preparation of material for blockhouses. I will instruct the officer commanding at New Plymouth to send the 200 military settlers to Wanganui, but you and the Government will be responsible for the safety of its settlement, and of the small forts occupying the country round it. I have, Ac, D. A. Cameron, His Excellency Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Lieut.-General. No. 53. His Excellency the Governor to Lieut.-General Sir D. A Cameron. My dear General, — Wanganui, March 21st, 1865. I am very sorry that you should have thought that there was anything in my letter of the 16th which indicated any desire on my part to interfere in the detail of matters which it belonged to you and the Officer Commanding Engineers to arrange the details of I intended simply to make a suggestion which I believe to have been a good and practical one, and still worthy of consideration upon a matter in relation to which you were about to entail a very considerable charge upon the Colony of which I am Governor. If you read my letter again, I think you will see that such was the case, and that I kept myself strictly within the bounds of my duty in making the suggestion I did. I have seen quite as good huts in a stockade as I have ever seen in a redoubt, indeed I think even better. It is also a question, in my belief, rather of policy than of mere military operations, for the building of blockhouses seems to infer the holding of a country against a hostile force in your vicinity by troops, a measure which I think the Colony will not iucur the expense of. I have not my correspondence here to refer to, but I believe it would be found that the suggestion of preparing blockhouses originated with the Colonial Government, and that it had reference to another plan of operations There is, however, I believe, plenty of timber prepared for this purpose ; and if you will state the number of blockhouses you think necessary, the proposed size of each, the quantities of timber you require, and the place where you wish each respective quantity to be landed, the timber, which lam informed lies ready for shipment, shall at once be sent for. You will, I think, see that until you furnished this information, the Government could not do more than it has done. It ajipears now that it is to be regretted that this was not done at an earlier date. The question can hereafter be decided, under all the circumstances of the case, whether the Home Government or the Colony is to bear the cost of the erection of these blockhouses. I have, Ac, Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B. G. Grey. No. 54. His Excellency the Governor to Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron. My dear General, — Wanganui, 22nd March, 1865. I have received your public letter regarding the prisoners taken by Colonel Greer's orders, whom I wished to be tried by court martial. I will consult the Attorney-General on the poiut, under whose advice I acted, and then at once write to you. I propose to go back to Wellington to-day, to see what is to be done about those East Coast natives. The question assumes a simpler form —the natives up the river say, not knowing that Father Garaval has returned home, that we put him to death in consequence of Mr. Volkner's having reported the fact, that Father Garaval brought to Opotiki a letter from William Thompson, calling upon the East Coast tribes to rise, and that they have punished Mr. Volkner in the same way, for causing the death of their friend. I was much shocked at the murder of poor Mr. Volkner, and I was also much shocked to find that Captain Lloyd's head had been carried to Pipiriki, on this river, and had been there subjected to all kiuds of insults, and that the head of another soldier had recently been sent to the same place, and was forwarded on to the East Coast, to raise the people there, and was the indirect cause of Mr. Volkner's death. I found that the Pipiriki natives were plotting against us, and that they were going to bring a war party to aid them from Eangitikei, who were to come out on the Wanganui, at Parekino. I had no time to communicate with you on this matter, so I moved up at once a party of fifty volunteers and some friendly natives to Parekino, to occupy that place; they will build apa there. The natives have sold us the land, and the Colonial Government are now raising military settlers to occupy it permanently. The friendly natives will then move on, occupy Pukuki within ten miles of Pipiriki, build apa there, and permanently occupy it; this will give us complete command of all the lower river, and we can attack Pipiriki when we like. I have, Ac, Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron, K.C.B. G. Grey. No. 55. His Excellency the Governor to Lieut.-General Sir D. A. Cameron. My Dear General, — Wanganui, 22nd March, 1865. In reply to your letter of the 17th instant, in part upon the subject of the embarrassment you have experienced from the want of definite instructions, I would state that my impression is, that my letter, under which you are now acting, was to meet your own wishes, purposely put in such general terms as left you a great latitude. I thought I had shewn it to you before I sent it, and that

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GOVERNOR AND LIEUT.-GENERAL CAMERON.