Page image

IL—26

4

4. A man who has weighing upon his mind great interests, in which are involved the fate of many helpless and innocent families, and the future of two races, should be allowed to think long, and to preserve a calm mind, in coming to a conclusion upon such a question as was submitted for Sir George Grey's decision, especially as the circumstances surrounding it were varying from day to day. 5. The Home Government requires that this colony should provide for its internal safety in all respects, and has taken upon itself the duty of removing its Governors from colony to colony, either conveying them in vessels of war or making them an ample allowance to defray the costs of passage. Wellington, 28th January, 1879. G. Grey.

Enclosure. The Hon. the Peemiee, — Mr. Moorhouse waited upon me yesterday, and said that he had just come down the Wanganui River, and that he was much concerned at the state of things on the West Coast and up the river. He found that the young men of all the villages had gone to Parihaka, Te Whiti's place, and he gathered that extensive military preparations were being made there. He had learned, he believed on the best authority, that there were at the present time 3,000 men at Parihaka, and the Natives assured him that they had 300 tons of flour and 100 tons of powder in store there. Te Whiti, though generally pacific in his utterances, had sent to stop a search party in pursuit of Hiroki, and Mr. Williams, an officer of the Government, had been compelled to go back, because the chief who stopped the party with which he was, informed him that if he did not, Te Whiti's orders were to shoot him. Altogether this state of things was causing great alarm to the settlers, and Mr. Moorhouse felt it his duty to convey to the Government the information he had obtained. Above is & precis of what Mr. Moorhouse said, as nearly as I can recollect it. 27th January, 1879. G. S. Whitmoee.

No. 6. His Excellency the Goveenoe to the Peemiee. Memorandum for the Son. Sir George Grey. The Governor presents his compliments to Sir George Grey, and begs to acknowledge the receipt of his memorandum of this day's date. As regards that portion of it which refers to the " Hinemoa," the Governor must decline to make any further remarks upon that subject. The memorandum signed by Colonel Whitmore, a copy of which is enclosed by Sir George Grey, is, however, a matter of a much more serious character, and one which opens up an entirely new question, showing, as it does, that a state of feeling exists among the Natives of which the Governor considers that he ought long ago to have had official intimation. The Government either were or were not informed of the state of things now reported by Mr. Moorhouse. Three hundred tons of flour and a hundred tons of powder are not things which the Natives could collect in a day, and the Government should have had full knowledge of all that was taking place. If they had that knowledge, it was their bounden duty at once to have given the Governor official notice of it; and if, on the other hand, they were not aware of the existence of the state of things depicted by Mr. Moorhouse (the truth of which the Governor takes for granted Sir George Grey does not dispute or deny, or he presumes he would never have sent the memorandum officially to him without auy explanation or qualification), then the Governor can only say that it is little creditable to the Government that a private individual should be able to discover that which the Government, with all the staff of the Native Department to assist it, had failed to observe ; and it would certainly tend to shake the confidence of the country in the management of Native affairs by the Government, for the conduct of which they have always claimed so much credit. The idea, however, that the Government had no knowledge of the state of feeling among the Natives in the Wanganui districts until they received Mr. Moorhouse's report is so preposterous, that the Governor is inclined rather to think that the information has been purposely withheld from him until now, when Sir George Grey has seen fit to forward it, not as a most important fact which should be communicated to the Governor, but simply to show " that Sir George Grey really had good reason to hesitate and ponder in coming to a decision in favour of the ' Hinemoa' being sent out of the colony for the purpose of proceeding to Melbourne." Sir George Grey must, however, have been perfectly aware that, had he given the Governor the slightest intimation that there was even an uneasy feeling among the Natives which might require the services of the " Hinemoa," he would have been the last man in the colony to have suggested that she should have been sent away even for a single day. It is perfectly true that the Governor had seen reports in the newspapers that the Native affairs were not in the satisfactory state in which they were represented to be ; but, as he received no official report, and as the Native Minister, on the day on which he left for Auckland, assured him that everything was going on in the most satisfactory manner, he had no reason to believe those reports, or to think that the Natives were not in as quiet and peaceable a state as they were in two years ago. Sir George Grey having now officially informed him that this is not the case, and that there is cause to anticipate some disturbance, the Governor must request that he may be kept informed of what is actually going on, and of the steps taken by the Government to meet any outbreak that might possibly take place. Government House, Wellington, 29fh January, 1579. Normajtbt,