A.—No. 1

30

DESPATCHES PROM THE GOVERNOR OP NEW

That in consequence of the representations of certain interested persons in the Colony, a Constitution was afterwards granted to New Zealand. The system of Responsible Government was engrafted on the Parliamentary Institutions, thereby at once subverting the authority of your Majesty's Representative, and substituting for direct responsibility to your Majesty and the Imperial Government a responsibility to the majoritj^ of an elected Assembly. That the change of Government has been most injurious to the Colony, but more especially so to tills portion in which your memorialists reside. As one of its evil consequences, your memorialists may mention that the Colony has for several years past been engaged in war with the aboriginal natives. Until lately it received every assistance from your Majesty's land and sea forces, but owing to the action of the Weld Administration the Imperial troops have been withdrawn, except one regiment, which is doing garrison duty in the chief towns, and the settlers are now without any aid from your Majesty's troops, although the Native war has assumed larger dimensions and is characterised by greater ferocity than at any former period. The successive defeats sustained by the Colonial forces on the West Coast, and the repeated defeats and recent slaughter of men, women, and children (Europeans and friendly Natives) at Poverty Bay and tlio East Coast, and the evident incapacity of New Zealand Governments as at present constituted, impress your memorialists with the conviction that safety to life and property, the preservation of the out-settlemcnts, and the supremacy of the law, can only be attained by a suspension of the Constitution, so far as the North Island of New Zealand is concerned, and a return to that system of government under which the Colony advanced in prosperity during the first twelve years after its foundation. Your memorialists further declare and believe that should your Majesty graciously be pleased to accede to the prayer of their Memorial, the fact will be hailed with satisfaction by a large portion of the aboriginal population who have not yet joined the rebellious tribes, and with whom your memorialists desire to live on terms of amity. Your memorialists therefore earnestly implore your Majesty to cause such measures to be adopted as your Majesty may deem necessary, to stay the effusion of blood and prevent the ruin of the North Island of New Zealand. And your Petitioners will ever pray. Signed, on behalf of the Inhabitants of Auckland James George, Chairman. and its Suburbs, in meeting assembled by Samuel Bright, public advertisement, in the Hall of the Geo. Thomson Chapman, Mechanics' Institute, on the sth day of John Geo. Freer, Capt.N.Z.M.,M.P.C. December, ISGS, by the Committee who John M. French, were elected thereat. Geo. Graham, M.G.A. T. B. Hill, M.P.C. Osmund Lewis, . James Wrigley, .1. C. Wilkes.

At an adjourned Meeting of the Inhabitants of the City and Suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, held in the Hall of the Mechanics' Institute on the Bth day of December, 1868, and which was very numerously attended, George Graham, Esq., M.G.A., prepared the following Statement, which was adopted, and ordered to be attached to the Petition to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen: — (1.) That the Northern Island of New Zealand, comprising an area of 31,000,000 acres of land, possessing a delightful climate, numerous and extensive fresh-water rivers, almost inexhaustible forests of timber, valuable deposits of coal, gold, and other minerals, and a coast line studded with safe and capacious harbours, has within itself all that is required to make it a prosperous Colony, and the home of a large and contented population. (2.) That the white population of the Northern Island amounts to about 85,000, and that of the native aboriginal inhabitants to about 35,000. (3.) That until within the last nine years the European and Native populations lived in peace with each other, trading and cultivating the land. (4.) That for the last nine years a war has been carried on in various parts of the country between our forces and the different tribes of Natives. (5.) That at the present time these Native disturbances, aggravated by one cause and another, have increased so as actually to threaten the very stability of the Colony, and to cause many of us seriously to discuss the advisability of leaving the Colony for ever. (0.) That there ia no protection whatever for life or property in many of the outlying districts, while even the inhabitants of the older and more firmly established centres of population live in constant fear of attack from the rebel Natives. (7.) That the following are some of the many reasonable results of the chronic state of disturbance in which the Colony has been during the period above mentioned : — a. Taranaki, one of the original six Provinces of the Colony, and formerly a flourishing settlement, may, without exaggeration, be said to have almost ceased to exist as a European settlement; the few Europeans who remain being confined to the township and the country in its vicinity. This Province has been the scene of war, almost uninterrupted, for a period of above nine years. b. The whole countrv lying between Taranaki and Wanganui, a considerable part of which had been taken by us from the Natives during the war, and upon which we had established townships and placed a large number of industrious settlers, has been again wrested from us by the rebel Natives, the settlers murdered or driven away, their houses burned, and property of all kinds wantonly destroyed.