A.—No: 1b

nition of the Maori King, and his and their entire independence from the Crown of England, —terms AAdiich no subject had power to grant, and which could not have been granted without creating worse evils than those which their refusal involved. I have, &c, G. GREY.

No. 2. Copy of a LETTER from Sir E. R. Sandpord to Sir George Grey, K.C.B. Sir, — Downing Street, 6th November, 1869. I am directed by Lord Granville to acknowledge your letter of tho 27th ultimo, commenting on two passages in his Lordship's Despatches of the 21st of March and the 7th of October last. 2. Lord Granville does not agree with you that his correspondence is pervaded by any error respecting the position of the Waikatos. 3. Lord Granville's statement that, as the result of the war, " the leading tribe " of the Maoris was scattered and the power of the others broken," was not meant to include those Avho remained at peace (to whom the latter part of the passage was manifestly inapplicable), but only those "leading" and "other" tribes concerned in the insurrection. Lord Granville continues to fear that the recognition of Maori authority,—the recognition, that is, to the extent to which it may become indispensable, —may prove distasteful to the Colonists, but he will be well satisfied to find himself mistaken, and is glad to infer that you are of a different opinion. He has not materials to judge how far the transactions referred to by you, which he presumes to be those reported in your Despatch No. 5, of the 6th Eebruary, 1863, and in which you now state that your Ministers concurred, support your anticipation. 4. Lord Granville has never suggested that the authority of the Maori King should be recognized over tribes not desirous of submitting to him. I have, &c., E. R. SANDEORD.

No. 3. Copy of a LETTER from Sir George Grey, X.C.8., to Sir E. R. Sandeord.. Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, Sir,— 13th November, 1869. In reply to your letter of the 6th instant, I have the honor to state asfollows: — I do not think that the portion of the Waikato Tribe, to which Lord Granville alludes as joining in the revolt, Avas the leading tribe, nor was it scattered ; the people composing it retired in a body from one district to another, where they still remain united. I regard the Ngatimaniapoto Tribe as having been the leading tribe in forcing on the revolt, and in conducting it. Their territory was hardly touched upon during the war, they have been neither scattered nor broken, and only one small strip of their land, touching the Waikato country, has been taken for the purpose of forming a portion of a military settlement for the protection of the country at an important point. There is, I think, a manifest error throughout Lord Granville's argument upon this subject, for it could never be said that it had become indispensable for an English Government to recognize, Avithin the limits of its ovra dominions, the authority of a Maori King, when the tribes who had raised an insurrection to set up that King were scattered, and their power broken, especially as they had no original right to set up a King, an office unknown to their ancestors, country, and institutions, and which act on their part has throughout been resisted by the great majority of their own countrymen. Barbarians, Avhether our friends or foes, will never believe that Aye have, from such causes as these, made concessions which they will regard as pusillanimous and disgraceful. The present Governor of New Zealand gives an exactly opposite reason for advising Earl Granville to

82

DESPATCHES EROM THE SECRETARY OE STATE