A.—No. 1b

when cruelties were committed which evidently shocked the majority of the Military forces present at the time, and deprived, in an illegal manner, subjects of the Queen of their lives, the fate of these unhappy persons, and the interests of the living, to whom the question of the powers of the Military is a vital one, should be altogether overlooked, and that it should be treated as a mere question of certain allegations made by one Military officer respecting another serving in the same Colony, which it rested with the Secretary of State for War for the time being to decide. I have refused hitherto to ask any Member of either House to make a motion for the production of the Papers to which you allude, and I cannot adopt the suggestion you make that I can do so. I know too well what was due to myseH as a high officer of the Empire, to take such a course, as you are perfectly aware aU the steps in these transactions ought to have been reported to me from time to time as they took place, and ought by me to have been reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who, Avhen he found that this course had been omitted, ought to have supported me in the claim I made, that this most necessary and prescribed line of action should have been taken. I gather from your letter that the Papers are in the War Department, that these things were not secretly done, but were reported in due course to the Secretary of State for War; but it forms no part of my duty to apply to a Member of Parliament to ask for their production. A great wrong was done to subjects of the Queen and to the Government of New Zealand, and this is the point I asked to be set right. I have, &c, Sir E. Rogers, Bart., K.C.M.G. G. GREY.

94

DESPATCHES EROM THE SECRETARY OE STATE.