A.—No. 1

46

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OP NEW

the East Coast, for the purpose of suppressing atrocious outrages and of securing peace, the expenditure on this object alone of Colonial funds in relief of what would have been a corresponding charge on the Imperial chest, is going on at the rate of upwards of ten thousand pounds sterling a month; nor have the efforts which the Colony has made been confined to money payments alone, for, in addition to the forces, European and Native, which it has regularly enrolled and paid, a large proportion of the population of the Northern Island, embracing all ages from sixteen to fifty-five, has been called out for active service; even youths of sixteen have died in the field. These exertions, made by an infant Colony, might well claim encouragement and assistance, instead of being met by a demand for additional contributions towards the maintenauce of Imperial troops, when the Colony is exhausted by a long war, still unfinished, for the origin and long continuance of which the Imperial Government cannot be considered exempt, as indeed was admitted by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer in the debate on the New Zealand Guarantee Act, on the 14th July, 1864 (see Hansard's Debates). Mr. Cardwell's hypothesis that the war in New Zealand might have ceased on the Ist of January, 1865, the date on which the increased rate of contribution was to commence, has been contrary to fact. The Taranaki and the Ngatiruanui tribes have for many years committed unceasing outrages, and throughout maintained an attitude of armed rebellion ; and General Cameron was so sensible of the absolute necessity, before any peace could be established, of inflicting signal punishment on these tribes, that he urged at an Executive Council of which he was a member, as stated in his letter to the Governor, of the 15th April, 1861, that he should be allowed to commence a campaign against them. Since that date the murder of the officers and men of the 57th Eegiment, near New Plymouth, and many subsequent murders, have been committed by these Natives, whose country has long been the focus of sedition and fanaticism. The Imperial and Colonial Governments have alike coincided in the belief that they must summarily be chastised. The campaign in the Waikato was ancillary to that end. More recently also the rise and spread of the Hau Hau fanaticism has been accompanied by a series of murders of a most aggravated character, both on the East and West Coasts, which, if unpunished, would speedily render the greater part of the North Island uninhabitable. An important point in the consideration of this question of contribution requires also to be borne in mind. The Military Estimates of Expenditure have not, as it is understood they are required to be, been submitted to the Governor. They have been carried out on a scale of what is considered in the Colony unnecessary magnitude, and the Colony, whose military expenditure has thereby been proportionately increased, has been deprived of the means of exercising that economy in military campaigns which would have taken place had those campaigns been of less extensive proportions, and more adapted to the attainment of decisive results. An attentive consideration of the foregoing summary of facts, will, it is submitted, lead to the following conclusions: — 1. That the original contribution of five pounds a head towards the expenses of Imperial Troops stationed in New Zealand was definitely settled, after mature deliberation, as a fair contribution in a time of peace, when the Colony was, of course, best enabled to make it. 2. That that arrangement was confirmed by the New Zealand Legislature, which at the same time placed a sum of fifty thousand pounds a year, for three years, at the absolute disposal of the Governor, for Native purposes, never contemplating that such an arrangement should be suddenly disturbed by one of the parties to it, and an increased contribution of eight hundred per cent, be demanded from the Colony, when the Imperial garrison was doubled, and when civil war was raging. 3. That the Colonial Legislature, when making every effort in November, 1863, to contribute on the part of the Colony so large a share of the cost of the hostilities which had existed for some months, never anticipated such a change in the existing arrangement, nor such increased demands on the part of the Imperial Government. 4. That the proposal by the Imperial Government of an increased contribution was evidently made on the implied assumption that the war in New Zealand would have terminated before the commencement of the increased rate, and was only intended to be a security in the possible contingency of future wars. 5. That the New Zealand war had not terminated on that date, and has not yet terminated. 6. That the proposal of the increased rate was one of the conditions of the acceptance by New Zealand of the Imperial Guarantee, and expressly stated to be so in the Imperial Act. 7. That the New Zealand Legislature did not accept the Imperial Guarantee on the conditions required. 8. That the debt of half a million claimed from the Colony by the Imperial Government, the payment of which was another of the conditions in question, has been defrayed by the Colony —thus showing every desire on its part to satisfy just claims, even without the Imperial Guarantee. l 9. That the Imperial Government has repeatedly been informed that the increased rate of contribution could not be paid by the Colony ; and that no obstacle has been raised by the Colonial Ministers to the removal of the troops. 10. That the Colony has incurred liabilities to the amount of between three and four millions of pounds sterling, in its military defence, since June, 1863. 11. That the Governor has, in violation of instructions, been precluded from exercising the slightest control over a vast military expenditure of Imperial funds, on which in a great measure hinged the amount of a similar expenditure of Colonial funds. 12. That for the last twelve months active military operations have been and are now being conducted by the Colony at its sole expense, and with its own forces, which obviate the necessity of charges on Imperial funds. 13. That under these circumstances the requirement of the increased rate of contribution ought not to be made on any ground of good faith or of justice ; and should the Home Govern-