A.—No. 1

No. 24. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8., to the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. (No. 9.) Government House, Wellington, Sir,— 12th January, 1866. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 65, of the 22nd August last, enclosing the copy of a letter from the Senior Commissariat Officer in New Zealand, showing that the liabilities of this Colony to the Imperial Treasury up to the 31st October, 1864, amounted to £641,260 Is. 7d. 2. Upon inquiring into the subject, I cannot but regret that the Senior Commissariat Officer should have transmitted a statement which must have -created erroneous impressions injurious to the Colony. 3. Erom the gross amount of £641,260 Is. 7d. claimed by the Senior Commissariat Officer, has to be deducted, in the first place, the sum of £85,891 10s. 4d., which was admitted at home to be an error of computation. This reduces the sum claimed to £555,368 lis. 3d. 4. Again, the Senior Commissariat Officer in NeAv Zealand, in his communication to the Under Secretary of State for War, has not taken any notice of the counter claims of the Colony on account of the Transport Service on the River Waikato, which rest upon a special agreement made by the Imperial military authorities in the Colony. The accounts on which these claims rest have been for a long time under the examination of a Board, consisting of a Commissariat officer and an accountant unconnected with the Colonial Government. There can be no doubt, lam assured, that at least £80,000 will be found due to the Colony. This reduces the sum claimed to less than £475,368 lis. 3d. 5. But the Senior Commissariat Officer, in the statement he transmitted to the Under Secretary of State for War, also omitted to allude to the instructions from the Treasury, addressed to him on the 13th July, 1862, in which he was instructed that the Home Government would waive for a time the full claim upon the Colony in respect of the military contribution of £5 per man. Erom this cause a further reduction of £69,012 has to be made in the statement furnished by the Senior Commissariat Officer, reducing the claim against the Colony in the whole from £641,260 Is. 7d., to less than £406,356. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. G. GREY.

r I 1 V. Scss. Papers, 1865, B. la. page

k, r > » i L I i I i Major-General Chute, Junuarr 1866.

No. 25. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8., to the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. (No. 10.) Government House, Wellington, Sir,— 13th January, 1866. In my Despatch No. 127, of the 14th of October last, I reported the murder on the West Coast of this Island, by the Hau Hau fanatics, of messengers sent to them by Brigadier-General Waddy, C.8., who they decoyed into friendly interviews. 2. The murderers of these messengers being left unpunished, they proceeded to murder other inoffensive people, and unfortunately from the absence of the Wanganui Native Contingent, at Opotiki, «it was impossible at once to collect a Native force that could be relied on to co-operate with the Troops in bringing these murderers to justice. 3. It being however at last found practicable to remove the Wanganui Native Contingent from Opotiki to Wanganui, a Native force was as speedily as possible collected to co-operate with Major-General Chute, and was placed under his command, and you will be glad to learn from the enclosed Despatch which I have just received from the General, that the fanatics and rebel Natives were defeated on the 4th and 7th instant, by Her Majesty's Eorces under MajorGeneral Chute, with but trifling loss on our side, and that from the active measures now taken the whole West Coast of this Island will shortly be placed in a state of entire security. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. G. GREY.

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ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OP STATE.