E.—No. 1.

prisoners. They offered, however, to give them up to the Governor on certain conditions, one of which was that he on the part of the Imperial Government should \mj the cost of their past and future detention. His Excellency at once closed with this arrangement, and assumed the charge. On Ministers, however, intimating that under these circumstances the establishments of the Colonial Government could no longer be employed for the purpose, and that they had given instructions for the preparation of the pecuniary account which His Excellency had undertaken to liquidate, he retreated from his position, and the Colonial Government resumed the duty and responsibility of the maintenance and custody of the prisoners. Afterwards, by a sort of compromise (the particulars of which will be presently given), the prisoners were removed to the island of Kawau, the private estate of His Excellency, at a distance of about 30 miles from Auckland, when opportunities for the direct control by the Colonial Government of an establishment no longer under their own eyes, were necessarily much lessened. 3. Sow disposed of by the Colonial Government. On the receipt of the large group of prisoners taken at Rangiriri, the Colonial Government would have been at a great loss how to dispose of them, had not Commodore Sir W. Wiseman obligingly placed the main deck of H.M.B. " Curacoa " at their disposal for the temporary custody of the prisoners. There was no building ashore suitable for the purpose; nor could one have been erected within any reasonable time. Under these circumstances the only resource of the Government was to obtain a hulk which was Lying in the harbour of Auckland, a vessel of 347 tons, to which they made numerous additions and alterations to fit it for the purpose required. This vessel had throe decks ;an upper (uncovered), a middle, and a lower. The lower deck was at first filled with coal, which (the hulk not being the property of the Government) could not be removed. Afterwards they succeeded iv purchasing the vessel; the coal was removed from the lower deck, and by the first week in March, that is at the end of a little more than two months, all three decks were available. The length of t lie ship was 102 feet;* her greatest breadth 2G feet, her depth 19 feet. The middle deck had a space of G feet 5 inches between coiling and floor, the lower one a similar space of 7 feet 2 inches. According to the regulations under the Imperial Passenger Act, there was space on the two decks for 280 persons. The greatest number actually there was 214. Several additional large scuttle holes were cut into the upper deck compartment. The lower deck was not so well provided with them, it being found impossible to get in Auckland the necessary windows for so low a tier of a ship ; and 1 hough ordered at Sydney, they had not arrived when the ship ceased to be used. In the centre of each deck was the usual large hatchway of a merchant ship, and in the lower deck this was infill further enlarged. These were always kept fully open, and they admitted freely the almost constant breezes which constitute so marked a feature of the Auckland climate. Two large windsaOs, which com eyed fresh air to both decks, were in constant use; and an awning protected the upper deck from Trie sun. In order that the whole interior of the ship might be available for the prisoners, deck houses were erected at stem and stem of the upper deck, for the military guard and officers of the establishment, for cooking houses and other purposes necessary for the convenience of the ship. The prisoners remained on board H.M.S. " Curacoa " from the 2Gth November till the 24th December, when Ihe hulk being reported ready for their reception, they were removed on board under the superintendence of Dr. Slade, E.K., of 11.M.5. " Curacoa,'' who had kindly attended them while on board that ship, and continued to do so for a short time after their removal to the hulk ; when the Government considering it desirable to have a Resident Medical Officer, his further services were dispensed with. 4. Where the Hulk lay. The hulk was moored so that she swung head to wind, in the centre of the inner harbour of Auckland, at a distance of 500 or GOO yards from the shore, immediately in front of Government House, and the windows of the Government offices. She was thus equally under the eye of the Government and of the public. 5. Further Accommodation prepared. When the prisoners were first token it was hoped that the campaign then in progress in Waikato might soon bring hostilities to a close, and enable the Government to release the prisoners, whom they had no intention of prosecuting to conviction, or subjecting to any ulterior punishment. Their imprisonment was intended simply for the purpose of safe custody, to keep them from again engaging in hostilities, and for the beneficial moral effect it might have on the rebels still in arms. To the facts of their capture and detention may be attributed the immediate cessation and hitherto discontinuance of the murder of outsettlers, which up to that period formed a definite part of the Maori tactics, and which cost the colony so many lives. As, however, the war dragged its slow length along, and it became almost certain that the prisoners would have to be retained over the winter, the Colonial Government, acting on the advice of their Medical Officer, thought it desirable that the prisoners, or part of them at least, should be removed to some place where they might have greater relaxation, and be employed in some useful work, such as growing their own food. A lease was taken of a peninsula of 40 acres of land on the North Shore, opposite to and about two miles from the town of Auckland, and a large iron barrack, divided into three compartments, was erected, with proper outhouses and other buildings, at a cost of nearly £1000. There was also an adjacent house of several rooms, suitable for the officers of the establishment. Many of the prisoners (all the sick and delicate) were removed to this new establishment by the month of June, and the rest were on the point of removal when the Kawau plan, hereafter described, led to a change in their destination. G. Condition in which the Prisoners were when handed over to the Colonial Government. When the first group of prisoners came into the hands of the Colonial Government, on the 2Gth * For full particulars of the build, measurement, and accommodation of this ship see Mr, White's report, Appendix B.

47

RELATIVE TO MAORI PRISONERS.