A.—l.

Enclosure. To Her Most Excellent Majesty Victoeia, of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, &c. Mat it please your Majesty,—The petition of Henry Baucke, subject of your Majesty, late of Chatham Islands, residing at Wellington, New Zealand, humbly showeth, — 1. That your petitioner was, with the consent of His Majesty the King of Prussia, sent from Berlin as a missionary to the Chatham Islands by a certain society called the Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Society, whose head and leader at that time was the Bev. Johannes Gossner. 2. That your petitioner arrived at the Chatham Islands, within the Colony of New Zealand, in the year 1843, and became a naturalized British subject in the year 1853. 3. That, in course of time, to more effectually proceed with his mission labours amongst the Natives of the Islands, your petitioner applied to the Government of New Zealand to establish a magisterial authority on the Islands. 4. That the request of your petitioner was readily granted by the Government, but that the Magistrate appointed—one Mr. Archibald Watson Shand —proved to be a man of thoroughly reprobate character, addicted to the lowest and most degrading vices, causing even the Natives to deride his private conduct and to contemn his official management; and that, notwithstanding this conduct of Mr. Shand was reported to the Government by your petitioner and the Natives, no notice or action was taken by the authorities. 5. That, under certain circumstances (set forth in document marked A), Mr. Shand succeeded in obtaining a certain sum of money—namely, £151 —from your petitioner, under pretence of a certain official authority, which was only of a temporary character, and had previously expired, the said money being the purchase-money of your petitioner's property, which had been bought by Mr. Shand, his object being to possess himself of the property while retaining possession of the purchase-money thereof. 6. That, having so far succeeded, Mr. Shand coveted your petitioner's homestead, adjoining the property previously referred to, and offered your petitioner a sum of £200, or about one-third of its value, for it; but your petitioner, having obtained an insight into Mr. Shand's character, declined to accede to his proposal, or to have anything further to do with him. 7. That, finding himself unsuccessful in his scheme, Mr. Shand tried another method, and instigated the Natives from whom your petitioner had bought the land, as well as leased an adjoining run, to drive your petitioner out of the place. Failing to induce the Natives to do this, Mr. Shand proceeded, in the absence of your petitioner, to ill-treat his family, with a view to bring your petitioner to his terms. To more effectually carry out his designs against your petitioner, Mr. Shand devised a malicious scheme, under pretence of which he refused your petitioner protection, so outlawing him, and then reported the outlawry throughout the main island, with intent to ruin your petitioner, and by which he sustained very severe losses, and was compelled to remove, under very hard and trying circumstances, to another place some forty miles distant, and thereby his homestead was rendered valueless to him. 8. That in course of time another Magistrate was appointed to the Chatham Islands in place of Mr. Shand, who, instead of righting your petitioner, endeavoured, by continuing the outlawry commenced by Mr. Shand, to gloss over his predecessor's misdeeds by making it appear that your petitioner was himself to blame for what had occurred, even going so far as boldly to advise your petitioner that if he was not satisfied he should leave the Islands or go to New Zealand to seek his rights. This latter course your petitioner said he would take, though his subsequent experiences have been of a character to make him regret that he did not then leave the colonial jurisdiction for ever. 9. That your petitioner visited New Zealand, and, on arrival, presented a statement of his complaints to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, dated 10th January, 1866 ; but, instead of being taken notice of, the Government sent a large number of Maori prisoners to the Chatham Islands in such a way and to such a place that your petitioner was compelled to return to the Islands in order to again remove his family to another place some thirty miles distant, which removal occasioned the death of your petitioner's wife, leaving nine children behind, of which the youngest was only three years old. 10. That, on again returning to New Zealand, your petitioner embodied the aforesaid statement in a petition, and presented it in the ensuing session of Parliament, and on the report of the Committee (see a copy marked " B") a Commission was sent to the Chatham Islands to investigate his complaints against the Magistrates. 11. That during the session of the Parliament of 1867 your petitioner presented another petition, and the Committee awarded him £300 for his properties sold to Mr. Shand as aforesaid. 12. That, when the Government were taking steps to give effect to the recommendation of the Committee, Mr. (now Sir James) Prendergast, the Attorney-General for the colony, but now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the colony—a man equally [sic] devoid of conscience with, but more subtle than, Mr. Shand, endeavoured with attempts to legalize the fraud originally concocted by Mr. Shand, and to favour Mr. Lyon, Government bookseller, of Wellington, to defraud your petitioner of the £300, and, to effect this purpose, conspired with one Bobert Hart, solicitor, of Wellington, to set up the claim and title of one Charles Cameron to the money (see particulars set forth in statement marked " A ") ; and Sir James Prendergast, whilst Attorney-General and Chief Justice, taking advantage of the high position he occupied, carried everything before him by misrepresentations to the effect that the money did not really belong to your petitioner, and that, in fact, in prosecuting his claim to the money, your petitioner acted the part of a rogue. Thus he frustrated every attempt made by your petitioner, either by petitioning Parliament or by taking action in the Supreme Court, during some sixteen years, until your petitioner was latterly [sic]

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