E.—No. 1.

He begs the Colonial Secretary's pardon, but what he yesterday asked the Governor to be so good as to inform him was not, " what m the Governor's opinion would be the status of the prisoners should they be recaptured," but what he conceived " the present status of these natives to be," and what their status would be should they either voluntarily, or by compulsion be again placed in the hands of the Governor, or of the Colonial Government. The Governor does not feel certain that the Attorney General would not, upon reconsideration, alter the opinion he yesterday gave upon the present status of the escaped natives. There are about 220 of them ; the Governor believes that several of these men never took any part in the rebellion, and are now probably unarmed. No enquiry ever took place as to whether such persons ever committed any offence, or were innocent; after several months confinement they have run awny. It may fairly be questioned whether such men are rebels in arms against the Queen's Government. Others of the prisoners the Governor has always believed to be very desperate characters. The Governor has, however, no doubt that if any of the escaped natives are recaptured, they may, as pointed out by the Attorney General, be tried for their offences, whatever these may be, and he will throw no obstacle whatever in the way of the Colonial Government bringing them to a legal trial; indeed he has never done so. Octcber 19th, 1864. G. Gkey.

No. 46. MEMORANDUM respecting the Status of the Maori Prisoners, and the refusal of His Excellency to sanction their trial under the " Suppression of Rebellion Act." The Colonial Secretary is very sorry if his Memorandum of yesterday's date failed to convey tp His Excellency the meaning which he intended. The more precise expressions in his Memorandum of' this day's date would, he hopes, remove any misunderstanding on the point. His Excf lleney must be aware that it was not the legal status of the prisoners on which he requested His Excellency's opinion, as on that point the Colonial Secretary could for himself have obtained the opinion of the Attorney General. In reference to the last paragraph of His Excellency's Memorandum, in which he states that he has never thrown any obstacle in the way of Ministers bringing the prisoners to trial, the Colonial Secretary begs very respectfully to remind His Excellency that when they advised him, on the 7th of April last, " that the whole of the prisoners should be forthwith brought to trial before a court constituted under the Suppression of Rebellion Act," His Excellency declined to act on their advice. 19th October, 1864. William Fox. ■

No. 47. MEMORANDUM of His Excellency, explaining his reasons for declining to sanction the Trial of the Prisoners. The Governor feels much obliged to the Colonial Secretary for having, by his Memorandum of yesterday's date, upon the subject of the status of the escaped prisoners, afforded him an opportunity of explaining his reasons for having declined to act on the advice of his Eesponsible Advisers, when, on the 19th April last, they advised him that the whole of the prisoners should be forthwith brought to trial before Courts-Martial, to be constituted under the provisions of the Suppression of Rebellion Act. The Governor would first observe that in his Memorandum of the 10th instant he did not state that he had never thrown any obstacle in the way of Ministers bringing the prisoners to trial. His words were, "to a legal trial," for he believed that, upon the 19th of April last, Ministers advised him to bring the prisoners to a trial, which would have been an illegal trial, and contrary to equity. The majority of the prisoners were taken on the 21st of November, they therefore had, upon the 19th of April, been in custody for more than four months and a-half. The New Zealand Settlements' Act authorised the Governor in those cases where the ordinary course of law was wholly inadequate for the prompt and effectual punishment of persons engaged in the rebellion, to cause such persons to be brought to trial in a summary manner by Courts-Martial, at the earliest possible period, for all offences committed in furtherance of the said rebellion. The prisoners had been brought, shortly after their capture, from the disturbed districts to the capital of the Colony, which was in a state of perfect tranquility, to within a few hundred yards of the Supreme Court. The Governor could not, under such circumstances, think that the ordinary courts of law were wholly inadequate for the effectual punishment of these people ; nor did he think that to bring the prisoners to trial before a Court-Martial more than four months and a-half after their capture was such an interpretation of the Suppression of Rebellion Act, which required him to do this, if he did it at all, at the earliest possible period, as would have rendered such a proceeding on his part either legal or equitable. He could have brought them to trial before such Courts-Martial within a week or ten days after their capture. If his views had been carried out, the most guilty of them would have been tried within that time, and, as appears to have been the intention of the law, a prompt example could have been given, whilst the least guilty and those meriting generous treatment might have been leniently dealt with. As Ministers have stated in another Memorandum, the model the Governor had in view when the Suppression of Rebellion Act was drawn, was " The Act for the more effectual suppression of local disturbances and dangerous associations in Ireland, 3 and 4, William IV., eh. 4, 1833." That Act authorised the Lord Lieutenant of any county, city, or town, or any portion thereof that in such a state of disturbance and insubordination as to require the application of the provisions of was the Act, then to proclaim it a proclaimed district. Then, as in certain cases the ordinary tribunal in such proclaimed district might be inadequate to the prompt and effectual punishment of various offences, the Lord Lieutenant was authorised to cause Courts-Martial to be held within proclaimed districts for the trial of such offences ; and the law then

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RELATIVE TO MAORI PRISONERS.