A.—No. Is.

of justice to repeat that the Colonial Ministers then in office appear to be no more responsible than the Governor himself for the attempt made by the unfortunate Major Biggs, and other local Magistrates and Officers, to recapture the Hauhaus, immediately on their landing at Poverty Bay, and long before the news of their escape had reached the distant seat of Government at Wellington. Eull information on all the above points Avill be found in the official documents enclosed in several of my former Despatches, of which I venture to solicit a reperusal. (C.) If there were any doubt of the inaccuracy of the report of Mr. Monsell's speech iioav under consideration, that doubt would be removed by the fact that the Right Honorable gentleman is represented as having stated, in effect, that a dispute about some horses at Patea on the West Coast of the North Island of New Zealand was the main cause of the rising headed by the Hauhaus Avho landed from the Chatham Islands at Poverty Bay on the East Coast. It has been observed here that it might as reasonably be argued, mutatis mutandis, that a dispute about some horses in the Counties of Louth or Dublin on one side of Ireland could be the main cause of a rising, headed by Eenians landed from America, in the Counties of Mayo or Gahvay, on the other side of that island. 3. I beg permission once more to submit, in conclusion, that it is with great reluctance, and from a desire to do justice to others rather than to myself, that I have ventured to solicit attention to the subject of this Despatch. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Earl Granville K.G. G. E. BOWEN.

No. 21. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. (No. 137.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord,— New Zealand, 25th October, 1869. In continuation of my Despatch No. 134, of the 14th instant, and of my previous reports of my journeys in NeAV Zealand, I have the honor to transmit the enclosed brief but accurate summary of my official visit to the district of Kaipara between the 15th and 22nd instant. 2. As a glance at any good map of this Colony will show, Kaipara is a large inlet of the sea on the West Coast of the North Island, into which run several rivers, —the Wairoa, the Kaipara, the Otamatea, the Arapawa, and the Oruawharu, —• all navigable for many miles by vessels of considerable tonnage. On the banks of these streams there are forests of the kauri pine (Dammara Australis) and other valuable timber trees; Avhile there is also an amount of fertile soil which Avould support a large agricultural population. As yet, however, the Europeans who have settled in the Kaipara District do not exceed one thousand (1,000), (including Avomen and children), while the Maoris, once numerous along these beautiful rivers, have now dwindled doAvn to little more than seven hundred (700). With the exception of some Ngapuhis on the Wairoa, they are the remnant of the clan of the Ngatiwhatuas, to whom the country around the present site of Auckland formerly belonged, and Avho have always been firmly attached to the English. The Ngatiwhatuas occupied the country lying between the tAvo most poAverful and Avarlike clans in New Zealand, —the Ngapuhis and the Waikatos, —Avho Avere constantly at Avar with each other, and generally chose the intervening territory for their battle-ground. To quote from Mr. Eox : —" As these invasions were annual, the position of the Ngatiwhatuas " became something Avorse than that of Belgium used to be among the belligerents "of Europe. In short, as they told me on one occasion, 'if you English had not " ' come they would have eaten us up between them.' When we did come, the " Ngatiwhatuas pressed on our acceptance the district A\diere Auckland stands, " and by getting us to occupy the intervening tract, they obtained the best possible " security against the renewal of the raids through their own country, which had " kept it in a continual state of desolation and alarm." And here it may be 12

45

AND THE GOVERNOR OE NEW ZEALAND.