A.—]S'o. Ic,

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PAPERS RELATIVE TO STATEMENTS

only occasion when I was present at operations during which wc had an opportunity of taking prisoners, fifty-seven prisoners were taken. Their lives were all spared, and they were treated with humanity and kindness. 3. I have twice since heard reports of prisoners having been put to death. 4. On one occasion I saw a statement in some local newspaper, that the troops under Major-General Chute had shot a prisoner who was said to have been known to be the murderer of a soldier. I immediately called the attention of the Minister for Colonial Defence to the subject. He informed me that I might make my mind quite easy regarding it; because he had been informed that it had been intended to execute this prisoner; but the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington, who was present with the General, hearing what it was intended to do, spoke to the General on the subject, who immediately sent orders that the man's' life should be spared. 5. Since I have received your confidential Despatch I have again spoken on this matter with the Minister for Colonial Defence, who tells me that he subsequently heard that the General's orders arrived too late, not reaching the place until the man had been executed. 6. This is all I know in relation to this subject. My ignorance regarding it is undoubtedly to be attributed to the fact of the War Department receiving communications from their officers, even of a confidential nature, reflecting on myself, without such communications having been made known to me ; and to the system, then very naturally adopted by the Military Authorities in this* country, of making most meagre reports to myself of their proceedings, and refusing or neglecting to furninish me with copies of their reports to the Secretary of State for War. I have thus been deprived of that authority which lawfully belonged to me, and which the safety of Her Majesty's subjects required I should be allowed to execute. 7. The second case in which I heard of prisoners being put to death, was that of two prisoners on the East Coast, tried and shot by our Native Allies. I found that tlus had been done from an official report made by an Officer of the Colonial Eorces who accompanied the Native Eorce. I called the attention of the Minister for Colonial Defence to the subject. The Government wrote me a strong Memorandum regarding it, and I issued orders to the Native Chiefs positively to abstain from such proceedings for the future, pointing out to them that the power of life and death over the Queen's subjects was vested in the Governor alone, and that no person could be put to death in New Zealand without my assent to his execution having been previously obtained. Since that time large numbers of prisoners have been taken on the East Coast, and have been well treated. 8. I have heard no other allegations of acts of cruelty in New Zealand, except in the case of the attack made on the Native Mission Village of Rangiaohia, by the European Eorces under General Cameron, one Sunday morning (21st February, 1864). I heard with sorrow those reports, but for the reasons I have before stated I could not tell whether they were true or not, and I was quite satisfied that, if true, they were accidental, and took place under excitement, and formed no part of a system, but that they would be as much regretted by the officers and men of the forces as by myself. 9. I at present entirely disbelieve the barbarities stated by Colonel Weare, commanding the 50th Regiment, to have been perpetrated upon the West Coast of this island. Colonel Weare either believed that they were or were not being perpetrated. If he believed they were being perpetrated, it was his duty to have reported the fact to me, that I might have instantly interfered to prevent the continuance of such barbarities, instead of reporting these in a private letter to some unknown correspondent in England, so that 1 did not hear of the circumstance until more than five months had elapsed, when any interference on my part was impossible. If Colonel Weare did not believe that the barbarities were being committed, then it was equally wrong of him to make such statements as he has done in a private letter. 10. In either case, myself and Her Majesty's subjects in this country have strong grounds of complaint against Colonel Weare. They, because he did not