A.—l

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" lands by the Kupapa's (leading chiefs) of Ngatihaua, to the exclusion of the " Hauhau portion of the tribe." If I could feel certain that this murder had no political significance, I should treat it as an event of domestic concern to the Colony only, in so far that I should not trouble your Lordship with any special Despatches on the subject. But the mutilation of the body by Natives, and removal of its members, as above mentioned, generally implies that the Natives have some object beyond the mere killing; and it appears probable, from the conduct of those connected with the murderers, especially since the event, that their purpose is to raise the Natives of the district, including the immediate adherents of the King, against the Europeans. Long before the event happened, an attack of the kind had been contemplated, although the immediate scene to be selected for the purpose was apparently not determined upon. Warnings were, it must be admitted, given to Europeans. Thus, one settler named Kirkwood says that he was warned two weeks before by an elderly Hauhau that Europeans would be killed, not in fighting, but murdered ; the Hauhau, pointing to Walker's station (on which Sullivan was killed), saying it would be " there; " then pointing to the station of Mr. Firth, an extensive landowner, who stands, I believe, in amicable personal relations with the Natives, the Hauhau continued, "or there; " and pointing to the station of a Mr. Buckland, "or there;" so it seems also, one Native, Tanika te Hura, was requested by another Native, Matenga, to tell Jones to be careful, and Jones was accordingly warned on the 23rd, the day before the murder. A Mr. H. T. Owen also says he was warned on the 23rd; and in the same mysterious way (as 1 have since learned) some chiefs in this Province were informed, so long as two months before the murder, that they might look for some killing of pakehas in the Upper Waikato. And some of the chiefs appear to think that the murderers of Sullivan have been encouraged, if not incited to the act, by certain Natives, except by one chief of great influence about Tawhiao, with the object of embroiling the King party with the Europeans. The conduct of the murdering party since the death of Sullivan is also suspicious. Nine Natives were afterwards seen carrying Sullivan's head into the Native settlement of Te Koukou. On the Sunday after the murder a Native arrived at Mangamutu, carrying the head with him, on his way (as it is alleged) to Te Kuiti, Tawhiao's own residence; and two of the Natives who arc mentioned as being of the murdering party are said to have carried the heart of Sullivan to Paea Te Aho, or the "Princess Sophia" (as she has been called), the relative of Tawhiao, and are stated (according to one account) to have placed that heart on the threshold of her house door as an offering, and an incitement to hostility against the Europeans. If, however, the object of these people has been to embroil the King party with the Europeans, and especially with the Government, they have as yet signally failed. Sophia would have nothing to do with their horrid offering, and the murder of Sullivan is denounced by the Natives on the Waikato as in other parts of the Colony. Still, the Government could not be insensible to the difficulty which must surround any attempt to apprehend the reputed murderers by sending a body of Armed Constabulary into the King district for that purpose. It was known that the murdering party and their immediate adherents were planted, armed and waiting to be attacked. Resistance was certain, the lives of many innocent persons would probably fall in any struggle that followed, and if the King Natives should throw themselves into the contest, the whole of the nourishing settlement of the Upper Waikato would be in danger. On these, as on more general grounds of policy affecting the mode in which offences committed by Natives might most discreetly be treated, it was considered prudent, before resorting to force, to appeal to Tawhiao himself to surrender the murderers to be dealt with by our law, or, failing such a concession from Tawhiao, to ascertain the views of the leading chiefs of the King party, and to obtain, if possible, the assurance that the murder of Sullivan was repudiated, and the murderers would not be protected by them. And this brings me to the course which the Government have pursued, upon which I purpose to inform your Lordship in a separate Despatch. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. A. ARNEY.