A.—No. 1.

ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

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say, inducements are being offered to a portion of our population to leave, and it is quite possible that tbis may be enforced on a mucli larger scale through tbe Militia Act. I may observe that this Province lias contributed very largely to the general revenue of the Colony. Apart from the revenue which has reverted to the Province for disposal by the Provincial Council, I find that during the nine years ending in June, 1867, Otago has been charged with no less a sum than £649,865 for the defrayal of the general expenditure of the Colony, besides £355,182 for local charges voted by tbe General Assembly. Last year the half of its revenue reverting to the General Government, for purely Colonial purposes, amounted to £131,750. I see, through the possible drain upon its population, that much injury may be done to this Province and to tbe Colony, which the figures which I have quoted show the Province has vastly aided with revenue. A handful of settlers originally colonized Otago. On them, and those who subsequently followed them, the whole work of colonization has fallen. The Provincial system has given to the Colony a powerful and wealthy member; and if the Colony has not done much to make Otago what it is, it should do nothing to destroy it. The Province is also directly threatened in another manner than by the withdrawal of its population : liabilities are being undertaken on behalf of the Colony, which, for generations to come, must seriously cripple the industrial resources of every portion of it; and should the rebellion continue, the Colony will be saddled with such an enormous debt as must drive both population and capital from its shores. Even as it is, lam in a position to assure your Excellency, that the efforts we have been making to promote the settlement of this Province, by means of suitable immigration on a large scale, are being checked, and that both capital and enterprise are seeking to transfer themselves to other field.-., anxious to escape the heavy burdens which the Native policy has already involved. With the utmost respect, I venture on behalf of this Province most earnestly to urge on your Excellency, that you will be pleased at once to summon to your aid the Imperial troops, under the powers which the ninth section of the Eoyal Instructions confer upon you. I cannot conceive an emergency more alarming than that which now calls for the exercise of your Excellency's plenary powers. Either the Eoyal Instructions were meant to be inoperative, or the occasion has arisen for acting upon them in the direction I have indicated. Failing your Excellency adopting this course, I earnestly implore that you will cause an immediate dissolution of the Assembly, and a fresh election, to convince your Excellency that the great majority ofthe Colonists disclaim being a party to the insult which is shown to the Empire in refusing to use Imperial troops to assert Her Majesty's sovereignty, and to protect the lives and properties of British subjects from the atrocities of fanatic cannibals. I am convinced that the question will be raised at home, as it has been in the Australian Colonies, why the Colony slighted the assistance ofthe troops, and at bottom of the refusal to employ them lurks a spirit of rampant disloyalty to the Empire. In the desire of asserting the loyal attachment which the people of this Province entertain towards the Sovereign, I venture respectfully to ask your Excellency to cause a copy of this despatch to be forwarded home to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, for submission to Her Majesty. I have, &c., His Excellency Sir G-eorge E. Bowen, J. Maca^iijiew, Wellington. Superintendent.

Enclosure 4 in No. 13. Memobakdvm by Mr. Stafford. Wellington, Oth January, 1869. Mit. Stafford lias the honor to return the documents referred to Ministers in His Excellency's Memorandum of the Bth instant, and, beyond expressing the dissent of Ministers from the opinions expressed by the writers, has no observations to make on the subject in addition to those already submitted by the Resident Minister at Auckland, with respect to the Memorial signed by ten inhabitants of that town. For His Excellency the Governor. E. W. Stafford.

No. 14. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to His Grace the Duke of Buckingham. (No. 11.) Government House, Wellington, Mr Loud Duke, — New Zealand, 28th January, 1869. The " Wellington College and Grammar School," partly endowed by the Government, and the principal educational establishment in this City and Province, was formally opened with much ceremony on the 25th instant. I had been requested to preside at this inauguration; and I have now the honor to forward the account of the proceedings as published in the local journals, together with a copy of the Address which I delivered on this interesting occasion. I have, &c, His Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. G. F. BOWEN. 9

Wellington Independent, Jan. 26, 18G9.