A.—No. 1.

8

DESPATCHES EROM THE GOVERNOR OE NEW

" The troops must not be placed in distant and isolated parts, or employed virtually as a frontier "or Native police. Thev must be concentrated in places of easy access, where adequate barrack " accommodation exists, and subject to the conditions usually required for the maintenance of discipline " and other military necessities. The officer in. command would not be at liberty to consent to their " location at posts where these conditions are wanting." 3. "When you remarked to me at Auckland, in last May, that you thought it expedient that the two companies of the 18th (Eoyal Irish) Eegiment stationed at Taranaki should be removed to Auckland, I observed 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 Sir G-. Grey, and that it would be therefore scarcely consistent with my duty to acquiesce in any material alteration of that distribution without fresh instructions from the Imperial authorities. 4. As it appears from your letter that copies of the Despatches addressed to me on this subject have not been forwarded to you (as I supposed) from the "War Office, I now transmit copies of them. 5. 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 AVellington, in which the 18th (Eoyal Irish) Eegiment is now distributed, and where detachments of Imperial troops have been quartered, with 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. G. It appears that in your letter to Sir G-. Grey, of 30th May, 1867, you suggested Taranaki as (me 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 objections 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. G, of the 18th January ult.: — " I have to acknowledge the receipt of Sir G. Grey's Despatch No. IG2, of Bth October, enclosing " a Memorandum from his Eesponsible Advisers, in which they state their opinion that the most " desirable spots for the ISth Eegiment 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." 7. With regard to the two companies now at Wellington, I agree with you, and (as I believe) with all your predecessors in the Australian command, and with all the other Governors of the Australian Colonies and of New Zealand, in the opinion that so long as there arc any of Her Majesty's troops in a Colony, a portion of them should be quartered in the town which is the scat of Government and the principal residence of the Queen's Bepresentative. Moreover, as you are already aware, two companies were sent to Wellington with the concurrence of the Commandant in New Zealand; the first in March last, to furnish the usual guards of honor, &c, during the expected visit of His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh ; and the second in April last, in consequence of the Fenian demonstrations on the Southern Gold Fields. You will perceive that in his Despatch No. 59, of the 30th May ultimo, the Duke of Buckingham expresses his entire approval of the "prompt measures" taken on that occasion. In reporting to the Secretary of State the course adopted, I submitted the following explanation:— " It will be remembered that the head-quarters of the 18th Eegiment at Auckland are distant more " than eight hundred miles from the scene of the late Fenian movements, and that telegraphic " communication between that city and the Seat of the Colonial Government at Wellington will not be " completed for a considerable period. On the other hand, the Southern Gold Fields and the whole " Middle Island are in direct communication, by means of the Electric Telegraph, with Wellington, " whence the detachment of about one hundred and fifty men now quartered there can be easily and " quickly despatched to Hokitika, or to any other point where the civil power may require support. The " Fenians avow that their quarrel is with the Imperial authorities rather than with the Colonial " Government; and it is considered here that the Imperial troops may properly be called upon, in " case of necessity, to assist in rcpi'essing Fenian disturbances in New Zealand, as in all other parts of " the British Empire. Of course in the event of future outbreaks in the Maori districts, care will be " taken, in obedience to the instructions of Her Majesty's Government, that the Queen's troops shall " not be employed in the interior, and that they shall continue, as now, to garrison the principal seaport " towns, leaving the Colonial Militia and Volunteers to protect the inland settlers." 8. 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 maybe in a position to afford some " assistance if, unhappily, the Colonial forces should be found unequal to the defence of the Colony." 9. As you already know, the entire management of Native affairs and the control of the Colonial forces have been transferred to the Eesponsible Ministers of the Colony, whom the Governor 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 their 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 Chatham Islands, and have made good their retreat from Poverty Bay into the wild mountainous country about a hundred miles north of' Napier ; and on the West Coast by a band of about an equal number, under the chief Titokowaru, who is lurking in the forests near Patea, about eighty miles from Taranaki. The Colonial Militia and Volunteers, under Colonel Whitmore, will protect the settlers on the East Coast; while Colonel McDonnell, who has about 700 Europeans and 300 Natives under his orders, will perform a similar duty on the West Coast. lam advised that the presence of the Imperial detachments at Napier and