ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OE STATE.

5

A.—No. 1.

and of a Memorandum on the subject submitted to me by my Responsible Advisers. 2. It will be seen that General Chute proposes a complete alteration in the present distribution of the troops, and especially the immediate withdrawal of the two companies now quartered at the town of Taranaki or New Plymouth, on the allegation that the existing distribution contravenes the directions given in Lord Carnarvon's Despatch No. 49, of Ist December, 1860. 3. It will be further perceived that I lost no time in replying to General Chute's letter, and in assuring him of my sincere desire to acquiesce in his views, so far as the instructions which I have received from your Grace, and my general duty to the Imperial Government and to this Colony, will permit. I reminded him, however, that the Secretaries of State for the Colonies and for War had expressed their approval of the distribution of the battalion in New Zealand, as made by the direction of my predecessor, Sir George Grey ; and that it would be, therefore, scarcely consistent with my duty to acquiesce in any material alteration of that arrangement without fresh instructions from the Imperial authorities. 4. Transmitting copies of your Grace's Despatches to me on this subject, I continued: " From these Despatches you will perceive that by the ' distant and " ' isolated posts' referred to by Lord Carnarvon in the Despatch quoted by you, " Her Majesty's Government intended to be understood posts in the interior of " this Colony, such as many of those in the Waikato and elsewhere, held by the " Imperial troops during the recent war, and not the four principal seaports of the " North Island, viz., Auckland, Taranaki, Napier, and Wellington, in which the " 18th (Royal Irish) llegiment is now distributed, and where detachments of " Imperial troops have been quartered, wdth the concurrence of the civil and " military authorities, for many years past; indeed, in the case of some of them, " almost from the first beginning of colonization in New Zealand. " It appears that in your letter to Sir George Grey of 30th May, 1867, you " suggested Taranaki as one of the posts at which a detachment of the two " companies of the 18th ought to be placed; that on the 7th October following Sir "G. Grey gave directions accordingly; that the distribution of the regiment at " Taranaki, Auckland, and Napier was carried out so recently as in last November, " without any objection on the part of yourself or of any other military officer; " and that these proceedings received the express approval of the Imperial " authorities. For you will perceive that the Duke of Buckingham wrote as follows " in his Despatch No. 6, of the 18th January ultimo : ' I have to acknowledge the " • receipt of Sir G. Grey's Despatch No. 102, of Bth October, enclosing a " ' Memorandum from his Responsible Advisers, in which they state their opinion " ' that the most desirable spots for the 18th Regiment to occupy are Taranaki, " ' Auckland, and Napier. "' Secretary Sir John Pakington, to whom I referred Sir George Grey's " ' Despatch, has informed me that he approves this distribution of the regiment, " ' which comes within the instructions of Her Majesty's Government, for the " ' short time during which it will remain in the Colony.' " 5. After referring to the position of the detachment sent to Wellington in consequence of the recent Fenian demonstrations on the Southern Gold Fields, and to your Grace's approval of the prompt measures taken on that occasion (which were fully explained in my Despatches, Nos. 27 and 34), I proceeded as follows :— " Your letter concludes by advising the concentration at one place (evidently at " Auckland) of the single Imperial battalion now in New Zealand, in order that it " may be in a position to afford some assistance if, unhappily, the Colonial forces " should be found unequal to the defence of the Colony. As you already know, " the entire management of Native affairs, and the control of the Colonial forces " has been transferred to the Responsible Ministers of the Colony, whom the Gover- " nor is instructed to consult on every occasion, and by whose advice he is to be " guided. The Ministers inform me that the removal of the Imperial detachments " from these present stations, and their concentration at a place remote from the " disturbed districts, would have an effect the reverse of rendering aid to the Colonial " forces. For the only disturbances at the present moment are those caused on " the East Coast by a band of about 150 Hauhaus, who have escaped from the 2

Secretary of Stato to Governor of New Zealand, No. 59, May 30, 1868.