A.—No. 1.

ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OE STATE.

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c. The peace of other large portions of the Wellington Province, betvreen Wanganui and Wellington, is also in serious danger. d. On the East Coast, Napier, a large and once a flourishing settlement, has been reduced to the verge of ruin by reason of Native disturbances. The opening up of the interior, the stocking of runs, and cultivation of farm-land cannot be carried on without danger to life. The great majority of the eouutiy settlers have been driven to take refuge in the town. e. Further north from Napier, Poverty Bay, in the Province of Auckland, once a thriving and industrious settlement, has just been destroyed by the rebels. Upwards of thirty Europeans, men, women, and children, and more than twenty friendly Natives, were barbarously murdered, the houses of the settlers burned, their crops destroyed, and their flocks and herds carried off to the interior. f. The rankest disaffection prevails along the whole extent of coast from Turanganui to Mercury Bay; and the inhabitants of the intermediate settlements of Opotiki, Whakatane, Matata, and Tauranga are not able, without great risk to life itself, to go upon their lands, if situate only a few miles from the respective townships. ff. In the extensive and important district of Waikato, acquired by us from the Natives during the late war by a lavish expenditure of blood and treasure, a universal feeling of insecurity prevails. The settlers in the more exposed districts are driving in their cattle, and Rending their wives and families to places of safety. Their fears arc only too well founded: at any moment the rebel Natives in the interior may break out into open war and come down upon the different settlements, which are almost without means of defence. (8). That these evils are not confined to the European population alone, and that a large number of Natives who have always been friendly to us are exposed to even greater danger, having, by reason of their adherence with us, incurred the special hatred of their disaffected countrymen. (9). That as the direct and immediate consequence of this state of things, the whole island is reduced to a most deplorable condition: agriculture is carried on under the greatest difficulties; the country remains locked up to European enterprise and capital; trade is in a state of stagnation ; and business failures matters of everyday occurrence. The public debt of the Colony, created chiefly through the expense of putting down rebellion, is nearly seven millions of pounds sterling; while the whole European inhabitants of the Colony, numbering only about 220,000, are taxed at the rate of £4 12s. per head per annum. Further, the general revenue of the Colony, and nearly all the Provincial revenues, are steadily decreasing. (10). That the principal causes of all these evils are — a. The corrupt and extravagant system of Government which has prevailed in the Colony since the establishment of what is called "Responsible Government:" a system which has only succeeded in loading the Colony with an enormous debt, and creating a deep-rooted mutual distrust and dislike between the European and Native Races. b. The fatal mistake wrought in our Constitution, by which questions solely affecting the European and Native inhabitants in the North Island in their social, political, and commercial relations, were handed over to be dealt with by the House of Assembly; one half the Members of which, representing the South Island, are almost or entirely ignorant of the condition of the European and Native inhabitants of the Northern Island, and the circumstances under which they are living, and occupying the same country. We therefore pray your Most Gracious Majesty to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire intoexisting evils in New Zealand. Signed, on behalf of the Meeting, James Geokok, Chairman.

Enclosure 2 in No. 13. Memorial of Residents in Southland. The Memorial of the undersigned Residents in Southland, New Zealand, humbly sheweth : —That some of your Majesty's subjects have been cruelly murdered in places where it was supposed that they were peaceably living under your Majesty's rule, and that it is no longer safe for any settlers to remain in the outlying districts of the Northern Island. That though for many years there has been a Governor in the North Island, as Representative of the Imperial Power, yet your subjects have been only living there through sufferance of the Maoris, who have been really the sovereigns, except in a few sea-coast towns. That the result of eight years' hostilities with the Maoris has been, that they are more skilled and quite as atrocious as they were ;;s original savages. That New Zealand has been colonized by a peaceful class of agricultural and pastoral settlers, who cannot, by simply arming themselves, cope with such an enemy, in a country which is peculiarly suited to savage warfare. That the local self-government of the country, which is a balance of parties for the promotion of general interests and the management of civil affairs, appears not to be fitted for such an emergency. That the hitherto adopted plan of conducting the war with a slight show of defence, in the hope that the Maoris may naturally die out or voluntarily cease hostilities, is causing such a heavy and useless expenditure and loss of confidence as will be the ruin of the country, and destroy our hopes for our children. That the peculiar interest felt in the Native race, by which too little distinction has been made between friendly and hostile Maoris, caused such unsatisfactory measures to be taken at the beginning. of the war that up to the present time the Native difficulty has been only increasing.