A.—No. 1.

No. 50. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowbn, G.C.M.G., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. (No. 18.) Government House, 'Wellington, My Lord, —■ New Zealand, sth February, 1872. In continuation of the numerous preceding Despatches in which I have described my official tours in various parts of New Zealand., I have now the honor to report that I returned on the Ist instant to Wellington, from a visit to the Province of Marlborough. 2. I annex an extract from one of the Colonial journals, containing a brief account of this tour, with copies of the Addresses presented to me, and of my replies. 8. An examination of any good map of New Zealand, and of the Admiralty Charts of Cook Strait, will show that the Province of Marlborough, which was separated from Nelson in 1859, occupies the north-eastern corner of the Middle Island, and is deeply indented by the sea, especially by the branches of the fine harbour of Port Underwood, and of the beautiful Queen Charlotte's and Pelorus Sounds. 4. Marlborough is chiefly a pastoral district, and contains, as yet, a population of less than six thousand (6,000) souls, including a few Maori families. There are only three small townships : Blenheim (the seat of the Provincial Government), which is situated on the fertile plain of the Wairau; and Picton and Havelock, which, are situated respectively at the head of the navigation of Queen Charlotte's and of Pelorus Sounds. It is proposed to construct a railway between Picton and Blenheim, a distance of about twenty miles; this railway ultimately to form part of a general scheme for the Middle Island. 5. About half-way on the road between Picton and Blenheim, I visited the monument which has been erected over the grave of Captain Arthur Wakefield, R.N., the first agent of the New Zealand Company at Nelson, and of twenty-one (21) other Englishmen (including several of the pioneer settlers of the Colony), who fell, on the 17th of June, 1843, in the unfortunate collision (known as the " Wairau Massacre ") with the Maoris under the Chief Rauparaha, so celebrated in the early annals of this country. A full account of this " melancholy catastrophe," as it was styled by the then Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of Derby), and of the proceedings which led to it, will be found in the Parliamentary Papers of 18-13-45, and a succinct narrative in Dr. Thomson's " New " Zealand," chapter vii., published in London in 1859. I may here mention that the only son and representative of Rauparaha is now one of the firmest friends of the English. Reference is made to him in my Despatch No. 53, of the 2nd of May, 1869, when I wrote as follows: —" It will be interesting to learn that several of the " Maori chiefs have laid at the feet of the ' Queen's Son' (so they affectionately " style the Duke of Edinburgh), as tokens of homage, the hereditary ornaments " which had been treasured by their ancestors for many generations, like the " famous ' Brooch of Lorn,' and other heirlooms preserved in the families of some "of the chiefs of the Scotch Highlands. In particular, I annex translations of "the letters in which Tamihana Te Rauparaha has described his reception on board " the ' Galatea,' and his presentation to the Duke of the kcd tangata, an ornament " of jade, or greenstone, celebrated in Maori songs and traditions, for which " considerable sums of money had been refused, and which had been an heirloom "in his tribe for five hundred years. The father of Rauparaha was, it will be " remembered, the conqueror of the Native clans in the Middle Island, and a " formidable enemy of the English in the first Maori war. His son is the last of " his race, having no children or near relatives. This last survivor of a long line " of chieftains and warriors himself told me, with not ungraceful emotion, that, as " there were none of his name and lineage to succeed him —as ' his house was gone " ' like the moa '■—he had, as it were, bequeathed this dearly prized talisman of his " fathers, as a token of love and honour, to 'the son of the Queen of England and " < of New Zealand.' " 6. I visited, in the Government steamer " Luna," all the principal bays and

Extract from Wellington Independent, Feb. 5, 1872.

Published in London in 1859. Paragraph 3.

58

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF