A.—No. Ib,

DESPATCHES EROM THE SECRETARY OE STATE

14

from twelve hundred (1,200) to fifteen hundred (1,500) rebels have been actually in collision with the Colonial forces during the last year, partly on tho East and partly on the West Coast. 5. The Despatch No. 12 further states :—" It appears to me, at this distance, " that the terrible nature of the catastrophe which has occurred leads you to over- " rate the magnitude of the danger to the Colony, more especially as your Ministry " do not forward any request to retain Imperial troops at the expense of the " Colonial Treasury, but have preferred, as I learn from Sir H. Manners Sutton, " and, I think, very properly preferred, to send to Victoria and the other Aus- " tralian Colonies for recruits." On this paragraph I beg leave to offer the following explanations :— A. Whatever may appear in England, at the distance of half the circumference of the globe, here in New Zealand I have been subjected to violent attacks from a portion of the public and of the Press, on the grounds that I had grossly under-estimated the dangerous state of the Colony. I have, in particular, been accused of "cruel want of sympathy," and "heartless indifference" to the sufferings of the Colonists, because I declined to send for additional troops from Australia under the circumstances reported at the time in my Despatch No. 9, of the 26th January, 1869. I submit, most respectfully, that since I have overrated, and in some quarters of New Zealand under-rated, the dangers which threaten this community, it is probable that my Reports have hit the mean between extreme opinions on either side. B. General Cameron put it on record that he would not attack (in 1865) the Wereroa Pa, then garrisoned by about three hundred (300) Maoris, without a fresh reinforcement of two thousand (2,000) soldiers, which would have brought up the number of the Regular forces in this country to twelve thousand (12,000) men of all arms. It is true that, in common with General Chute and Commodore Lambert, I reported that it would, in my opinion, have been unfortunate if the 18th Regiment, the only battalion left in the Colony, had been removed during the recent crisis, and on the eve of the arrival of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh ; but I again submit, most respectfully, that I can hardly be described in any quarter as an alarmist, because I thought it desirable to retain here temporarily seven hundred (700) soldiers, that is, about one-twentieth part of the number which a very able, experienced, and distinguished General Officer declared, only four years ago, to be indispensable against, practically, nearly the same enemy. C. The truth is that (as the tone of several of my recent Despatches will show) I have thought better, and not worse, of the prospects of this Colony, with regard to the Native rebellion, since the Poverty Bay massacre, than I thought before that catastrophe. It has caused the spirit of the Colonists, and of the loyal Maori clans, to swell up high and fierce. Moreover, it was believed by many of those best acquainted with the Native character, that a bloody outbreak of this nature would prove the signal (as on former occasions) for a very extensive rising of the disaffected tribes, with the so-called Maori King at their head; whereas Tawhiao and his adherents have abstained from active hostilities for so many months, that I am now inclined to hope that they will not rise at all. D. It is implied in the concluding clause of the Despatch No. 12, that it was only through the Governor of Victoria that your Lordship had learned that the New Zealand Ministers had sent to Australia for recruits in last December. It will be found, however, that I forwarded with my Despatch No. 125, of the 7th December ultimo, a Memorandum from Colonel Haultain, the Defence Minister, explicitly stating, for the information of Her Majesty's Government, the intentions in this respect of himself and his colleagues. I should, perhaps, further explain that, in view of the emergency which had arisen, and of the urgent need of saving from destruction the settlers in the disturbed districts and their families, the Ministers would have preferred employing in the field the trained soldiers of the 18th Regiment, who were present in New Zealand, to the chance of procuring from Melbourne raw recruits Avho could not possibly be rendered efficient until after a long delay. But it will be remembered that there was no option in this matter, for the 18th Regiment was strictly confined, by orders from home, to