MADE BY COLONEL WEARE, C.B.

11

A.—No. 1b

Separate, June 13, 1866. „ June 29,1866. „ June 30 „ „ July 3 „ __0.69,Ju1y10 „ Separate „ 12 „ „ „ 24 „ „Aug. 13 „

of the dates noted in the margin, relating to certain acts of inhumanity alleged to have been committed by Her Majesty's Forces in New Zealand, and by our Native Allies, and in some particulars to have been approved or suggested by the Civil or Military Authorities. I perceive with satisfaction, but, I need hardly say, without any surprise, that, so far as these charges regard yourself and your Government, they are repudiated by you with the utmost indignation. They are also withdrawn by the officer who made them, after having given you an opportunity of bringing to my knowledge various transactions which illustrate your watchful determination to protect the rebel Natives from inhuman treatment not Avarranted by the usages of civilized warfare. I recognize in these transactions your accustomed care for the Maoris; I require no other vindication of your Ministers than that which is afforded by your own disclaimer and by Colonel Weare's explanation or retractation of his statements; and I consider the charges against you and them to be completely disposed of. I wish very sincerely that I could dismiss the subject with these observations. But unfortunately some of your Despatches are written in a tone which cannot pass, and which you cannot have intended to pass, unnoticed by the Secretary of State. On the 26th of March Mr. Cardwell communicated to you confidentially, and, as it seems to me, in no unfriendly tone, the substance of certain allegations to the discredit of yourself and your Ministers which had been laid officially before him. It was not surprising that you should feel much indignation at these allegations and at then* author ; that you should desire to be acquainted with the words in which they were couched, and the name of the person who had transmitted them, and even that you should feel yourself bound to place Mr. Cardwell's Despatch, confidential as it was, before those who were affected by the charges of which it informed you. And all this you might very properly have communicated in fitting language to the Secretary of State. This course however you did not adopt. You laid before your Executive Council, on the 13th of June, a Minute denouncing the statement made to the Secretary of State as a " base and wicked calumny;" and concluding as follows : — " He (the Governor) at once enters this Minute on the proceedings of the " Executive Council; he transmits a copy of it to the Right Honorable Edward " Cardwell, M.P., and he at the same time demands, as he has a right to do, that " copies of Colonel Weare's letters be communicated to Mm, with the name of " the person who supplied the information to the Secretary of State; and that a " full inquiry be instituted into the whole matter; and he declines to receive the " communication as a confidential one." This expression of your sentiments you convey to Mr. Cardwell in the following terms, without further comment or explanation :— " I have the honor to transmit for your information the copy of a Minute " which I entered on the proceedings of the Executive Council immediately upon " the receipt of your confidential Despatch of the 26th of March last." You can, I think, be hardly unaware that this is not the tone or manner in which the Officer representing the Queen ought to communicate with the Minister from whom he receives Her Majesty's commands. It would have been difficult for me, with due regard for the office which I hold, to pass over this commimication in silence. A later Despatch renders it impossible to do so. On the 26th of April Mr. Cardwell had already transmitted you much of the information which you had demanded in so peremptory a tone: The name of Colonel Weare's informant, and the words in which some of his charges were couched. He had also directed the inquiry which you claimed. In the Despatch enclosing this information, the following passage occurs : — " I cannot for a moment suppose that such imputations, either upon General " Chute or upon your Government, can be made without meeting with such . a " complete reply as will show Colonel Weare's statement to have been altogether " founded in error; but, on the other hand, I am not warranted in considering