A»—B

1882. NEW ZEALAND.

WEST COAST NATIVE AFFAIRS (PAPERS RESPECTING). [In continuation of G.-7, 1881.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly, by Command of His Excellency.

I.—THE GOVERNOR'S EEPORT TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE. No. 1. His Excellency the Governor to tlie Secretary of State for the Colonies. (No. 11.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord, — New Zealand, 26th February, 1881. I fear that your Lordship will consider me to have been extremely dilatory in complying with the instructions contained in your Lordship's Despatch No. 36, of the 22nd October last, directing me to prepare a full report upon the " Native disturbances of 1879 and 1880, and the measures taken by the Govern- " ment of New Zealand in consequence of them." 2. My excuse for delay must be found in the extreme difficulty which I have experienced in obtaining information which it appeared to me essential that I should possess before undertaking such a task. 3. The Minister for Native Affairs has afforded me material assistance, and has shown no reluctance to place in my hands official documents in his possession. On the contrary, all papers in his office have been freely placed at my disposal. But these papers are themselves too imperfect to permit me either to compile from them so clear a narrative of facts as I should wish to present, or to draw from them conclusions so definite as those I should desire to form. Members of the Colonial Government themselves, though aided by their local knowledge, and familiarity with the public events of the last ten or twenty years, not infrequently experience difficulty in ascertaining with precision the history of past transactions, even in the departments over which they themselves preside; and I need hardly say that what is difficult to them becomes almost impossible to those who, like myself, possess no similar advantages. 4. The communications which pass between the central Government, and its officers in the different provinces, appear in a great measure to be made by telegraph, whilst not a little important business is conducted orally, and no official record remains of the information received, agreements made, or orders given in that manner. Written instructions seem to have been but rarely sent to those engaged in the transactions which I am directed to narrate, and as few written reports to have been received from them. Telegrams to and from the Ministers of the day have been sometimes regarded as private communications, and sometimes as public documents; whilst, when treated as official, they have not always been filed as records at the time of being received. It cannot therefore be a matter for surprise that in these circumstances they should occasionally be altogether lost. I—A. 8.

Parliamentary Paper. G.-7, 1881, No. 1.