NEW ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

75

A.—No. 1,

the scene of the fiercely-contested battle of October, 1869, but where our late enemies are now assembled to give me an enthusiastic greeting. In the speeches addressed to me this day by the Maori chiefs of Taupo, they assured me that they are entirely satisfied with the policy pursued towards them by myself and by the Colonial Government; and that they are now fully convinced that their true interest is to live in peace and friendship with the Colonists. They are desirous to sell and lease large portions of their lands to the settlers, whom they are inviting to live among them, so that they, like their countrymen at Hawke's Bay and elsewhere, may live in comfort on the rents and purchase money. They further expressed their anxiety to have English schools established in their villages, so that their children may learn our language, and enjoy the same advantages of education with the children of the Maoris resident in the settled districts. Moreover, they made it a special request that a township should be founded on the shores of their lake, and called after my name. Above all, perhaps, they are eager to be employed in working on the roads, which are gradually but surely creeping up from the coast into their mountain fastnesses, and which will ere long render future wars and rebellions impossible. Several of the local chiefs have already contracted with the Government to make, by the labour of their clansmen, the road, ninety miles in length, which is to connect the seaport of Napier with the Lake of Taupo, and which is to cost about eight thousand pounds (£8,000). Nearly half of this road is already finished, and (strange and almost incredible as such a statement would have seemed, if made only two years ago,) a coach subsidized by the Government will then run regularly upon it, carrying mails and passengers into the heart of the recently hostile country. 4. The Lake of Taupo is of about the same extent (covering two hundred (200) square miles of water) with the Lake of Geneva, which it much resembles in climate and scenery. From the place in which lam now writing, there is a glorious view across its waters of the great volcano of Tongariro,* and of the snowy peaks of Ruapehu.f Much of the country between the lake and the sea at Napier reminded me of the Apennines and of the Italian slopes of the Alps; but the semir tropical luxuriance of the New Zealand forests far surpasses the vegetation of Europe. 5. On my return from Tokano, I shall visit the Falls of the Waikato at Huka, four miles from the spot where that river issues from the north end of the Lake, and other striking natural phenomena in this neighbourhood, which are still almost as little known to the settlers in the seaport towns of New Zealand as are the great lakes in the interior of Africa to the Europeans at Algiers and at the Cape of Good Hope. Afterwards I shall proceed on my journey overland to Auckland, expecting to reach that city before the end of this month. Thence I hope to address to your Lordship by the mail of next month (May) a full report of my expedition, together with the substance of the speeches addressed to me by the Maori chiefs, and of my replies to them. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. F. BOWEN.

No. 61. Copt of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimbebxey. (No. 38.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord,— New Zealand, 26th April, 1872. I have the honor to forward herewith a Congratulatory Address from the Inhabitants of Wanganui, in New Zealand, to the Queen, on the recovery of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. F. BO WEN. (Enclosure sent in original.) * 6,500 feet high. + 9,195 feet high.