A.—lc,

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submit, clearly and succinctly to those circumstances which were in existence at the time I wrote, and to events for encountering which provision would probahly have to be made. The charges made against me by your Excellency, and the enclosures to your despatch, are three in number. (1.) My conduct in relation to improperly dictating, in my office, as Superintendent, a particular resolution to the Provincial Council of the Province of Auckland. (2.) Some implied charge, but not openly or fairly stated, of attempting to get the command of the police force of the Province of Auckland, to use it against the General Government. (3.) Of being the author of reports that the Government of this country might attempt to use the Queen's vessels against the inhabitants of this colony, if any of the provinces, as a last resource, resisted the bringing into operation of the Abolition Act. The first of these charges is sufficiently disposed of by my denial of it, and by the statements made, in their places in Parliament, by members of the Auckland Provincial Council. The second charge is thus answered: The Superintendents of all the other provinces but Auckland have the police force under their control; and the law requires that this should be the case, as the Superintendents are by law required to pay the cost of the police force, and are made answerable for the peace, order, and good government of their several provinces. There was, therefore, in the first place, nothing unlawful or unusual in my seeking to be placed in the same position in this respect as other Superintendents. In the second place, when the General Government at last, at my request, agreed to hand over the police force of the Province of Auckland to the Superintendent, representations were made to me, on the part of the chief officer of that force, that this proceeding might injure the position of some of the officers, and lose the province the service of at least one very able and deserving officer, possibly that of some of the others, and of some of the men composing the force. It was then doubtful how long the provinces might continue, and any new arrangement made with regard to the police might only be very temporary. Out of tenderness, therefore, for individual interests, I would not interfere with them to gain an advantage which might be so short-lived, and I relinquished all idea of taking over the police, and did not do so. Had I intended to use the police force to support any views of my own, I should certainly have taken it over. The fact of my not having done so was well known to your Excellency's Advisers when you wrote your despatch of 21st June last. The third charge is thus answered: I first heard of the supposed intention of the General Government to use, under certain circumstances, the Queen's vessels and marines against the people of New Zealand, from a supporter of the Government, some time before any of the circumstances alluded to in your Excellency's letters. I attached importance to that statement from knowing that on a previous occasion the Government here had made arrangements for doing this in the case of trivial disturbances, which they were capable of easily suppressing by police and special constables, as they in fact did. My complaint also was not that a rumour was in circulation to the effect that the Queen's vessels and forcible measures were to be employed by the supporters of the Abolition policy against Her Majesty's subjects here —a rumour which undoubtedly myself or any other person might be wrongfully accused of having originated —but that the supporters of the Government Abolition measures used threats that this would be done. Now, certainly I could not have been the means of inducing them to use such threats, nor could I in any way be responsible for their doing so. Nor again, until your despatch of 21st June last was made public, did myself or the public know your views on the subject. It is, in my belief, greatly to be regretted that they were not sooner made public. Threats of the kind I allude to have been made by supporters of the Abolition measures of the Government in my presence —sometimes as warnings, sometimes in a manner offensive to me. Members of the Assembly, the other day, in their places in Parliament, testified to the same circumstances. The public press has