A.—No. 8

No. 1. copy of DESPATCH fbom govebnob sib geoege grey, k.c.b., to his gbace tsf, duke or NEWCASTLE, E.G. Auckland, New Zealand, August 29th, 1863. My Lord Duke, — I have the honor to transmit to Your Grace the copy of a Memorandum I have received from my Eesponsible Advisers, containing the details of a plan they have framed for the introduction into this ' country of five thousand men, who are to hold fifty acre farms of land upon military tenure, having first ' performed military duties in this country for such period as the Government may require their services. The enclosed copy of the conditions under which these men are to be enrolled will explain the details of the proposed plan, which is based upon that which I adopted in British Kaffraria, such differences however existing between the two plans as the totally different nature of the populations, physical aspect, soil, and climate of the two countries rendered necessary. 2. The land upon which it is proposed to locate these military settlers it is intended ultimately to take from the territories of those tribes now in arms against the Government. My Responsible Advisers are of opinion that the General Assembly will, under the present critical circumstances of this Colony, pass without hesitation the laws necessary to give legal validity to the proposed measure, and I have summoned the Assembly for the 19th day of October next, partly with the view of submitting this measure to that body. 3. From my reply to the Memorandum of my Eesponsible Advisers, a copy of which is herewith transmitted, your Grace will find that I have acquiesced, until the General Assembly can meet, in the . proposed arrangement, to the extent of raising two thousand men for active service in this Province on the conditions named. 4. I feel certain that the Chiefs of Waikato having in so unprovoked a manner caused Europeans to be murdered, and having planned a wholesale destruction of some of the European settlements, it will be necessary now to take efficient steps for the permanent security of the country, and to inflict upon those Chiefs a punishment of such a nature as will deter other tribes from hereafter forming and attempting to carry out designs of a similar nature, which must in their results be so disastrous to the welfare of the Native race as well as to Her Majesty's European subjects. 5. I c;m devise no other plan by which both of those ends can be obtained than, firstly, by providing for the permanent peace of the country by locating large bodies of European settlers strong enough to defend themselves in those natural positions in this Province which will give us the entire command of it, and will convince the badly disposed Natives that it is hopeless to attempt either to drive the Europeans from the country, or to place them throughout a great part of its extent under the rule and laws of a king of the Native race, elected by the Maori population, who would soon turn his arms against his brother chiefs, and render the Northern Island from end to end one large scene of murderous warfare; and secondly, by taking the land on which this European population is to be settled from those tribes who have been guilty of the outrages detailed in my various despatches to Your Grace. A punishment of this nature will deter other tribes from committing similar acts, when they find that it is

No. 109.

Enclosure 1. Memorandum from Ministers, July 31,1863.

Enclosure 2. New Zealand Gazette, No. 35, Aug. S, 1863.

Enclosure 3. Memorandum by Sir ii. Grey, Aug. 5. 1S«3.

PAPERS BELATING TO MILITARY SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHERN ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND.