The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-19 00:00:00

NEWS.PAPEIL
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~er
THE NEW ZEALAND WM:
;:it4- .41 /N
Too following despateti by the Da - • 41,
eastio to Sie Georgo Grey, K.C.B„ 1144,g.i4•
'N w Zealand, is published by the Slt;dney 21,413-211
Herald:—

Downing-street, Aug. 25, 18(7.
have the honour to acknowledge your despatch,
No. 56 of the 27th May, enclosing a proclamation by which
you announced the abandonment of the purchase of the
land at the Waitara, which was offered for sale to the Go-
vernment in 1859, and conditionally ,accpttd by your pre-

decesser.
I thought it my duty to convey to you at once by the
last mail my approval of the course which you had then re-
solved to take; and I now proceed to address you more
fuily upon the subject, with reference especially to your
despatch of the 24th April, and the communications be-
tween yourself and your Ministers which it enclosed.
The facts upon which you mainly ground the important
decision at which you have arrived, and which, strange to
say, have only now been discovered by your personal in-
quiries, and by Teira's admissions to the native dinister
(Mr. Dillon Bell) appear to be these:-1. That W. King's
residence on the disputed land upon the south bank of the
Waitara was not merely, as had been always represented by
the sellers, by permission of Teira's father, bat in virtue of
an arrangement made by all that section of the Notitieva
tribe, for the safe defence against the Waikatos. 2. That
a large number of natives, between 200 and 300, were living
upon the block at the time when it was offered for sale,
whose dwellings and cultivations were destroyed when pos-
session was taken by the military. 3. That Teira, as he now
asserts, never intended to sell the pals, one of which was in
his own occupation, and did intend to except from sale are-
serve of 200 acres, although no such reserve was named in
the deed of sale, as ought to have been done.
I proceed to explain to you the effect which these states
meats have produced upon my mind, both with respect to
the transactions of 1859-60 and the measure which you ha ye
now adopted,
If it be true that a number of families were residing upon
and cultivating portions of the land offered for sale (variously
estimated at from 10 to 120 acres out of the 980 acres which
formed the "Block"), I have no doubt but that Governor
Gore Browne and his Ministers, upon discovering the fact,
would have carefully reserved and respected such portions,
in accordance with the invariable practice of the New Zea-
land Government, or even have refused to have any further
dealings with pasties who, like Teira and the ether sellers,
had been guilty of concealing from the Governor so impor-
tant a circumstance. If again they had been aware that W.
King had established his residence on the south bank of the
Waitara in virtue of a general tribal arrangement for pur-
poses of defence, this fact might have formed an important
element in their decision as to whether the purchase could
properly and safely be proceeded with. On the whole, I
agree with you that your predecessor, if he had been in pos-
session of these facts, would not have committed himself to.
the purchase, and I am clearly of opinion that he would not
have been justified in doing so, The information, indeed,
which you now supply converts into a certainty the doubts
which I expressed in my despatch of Nov. 27, 1860, and
upon other occasions, as to the prudence of the policy pur-
sued by Governor Browne and his Ministers, with an evi-
dent want of sufficient knowledge of the case, as well as of
foresight of the consequences, though with fair and upright
intentions,.while it lessens the serious difficulty of aban-
doning a publicly declared determination in the face of
armed opposition.
I have said so much as to the propriety and prudence of
the Waitara purchase. But I must add, on the other hand,
that my view of the justice of exerting military force against
W. King and his allies remains unchanged. That chief's
conduct, from first to last, still seems to me to have been
inconsistent with any degree of submission to the Queen's
sovereignty over New Zealand. In February, 1859, before
the Waitara question arose, he had given notice to the Go-
vernor that he would allow no land to be sold within a dis-

trict extending 40 milies north of the European boundary
at Taranaki, an interdict of a rebellious character, to which
the reasons now or formerly alleged agaiast the Waitara
sale can of course have no application. In the same way, at

the public meeting where Teira offered the land, and daring
the many months which elapsed before the survey, he gave
no reasons for his opposition, he afforded no explanations of
it, either such as were provided for him by others at the
time, or such as might have been drawn from the statements
which you have now conveyed to me. In short, he never
assumed any attitude towards the Governor but one of de-
fiance, and, to use the language of Chief Justice Arney
in
the Legislative Council, never made "any intelligible claim
of right to the land, or any other declaration than a decla-
ration of war."
No one can deny that, had he entered into any peaceable
and loyal explanations, they would have been attended to,
or that if the Government survey had been allowed to pro •
ceed, the pahs and cultivations would not have been inter-
fered with, or anything done by Government officers incon-
sistent with the notice given by Governor Brown some
months before, "that if any man can prove his claim to any
piece of land within the boundary described, such claim
would be respected." I dissent, therefore, from the view of
the matter conveyed by the language which in your despatch
of April 2ith you place in the mouth of the natives, viz.,
" that the people of Waitara, without having been guilty
of any crime, were driven at the point of the sword from
villages, houses, and homes which they had occupied for
years." The truth being that W. King and his followers
brought these consequences upon themselves by their own
conduct, and that the latter, far from being evicted (as it
were) for the purpose of taking possesrion of the purchased
land, themselves, in the consciousness of hostility, abandoned
their palls, which were only destroyed after hostile acts had
been committed by W. King's party, and military operations
had actually commenced. Again, with respect to the asser-
tion which had attributed to the natives, that they fought in

the late war simply "for their hearths and homes," and not
at all for the maintenance of "Tribal Right" or the
" Dana" of the Maori King, or to prohibit the sale of land
to the Crown even by owners desirous to sell, I can only say
that the great body of evidence before me, including that of
the ardent and able defenders of W. King, to whom the
allegations now made seem to have been unknown, makes it
impossible for me to accept them AS worthy of credit. I hold,
therefore, that no injustice—and it is with the question of
justice only that I am now dealing—was either intended or
done to W. King and his followers by the employment of
military force to carry into effect the survey of the Waiters
land for the purpose of ascertaining how much or how little
of it was owned by Teira and the others who joined with
him in the sale to the Crown. I also believe that in the then
state of mind of a portion of the New Zealand natives espe-
cially those of Taranaki, collision between them and the
Government was not to be avoided without great difficulty,
rare forbearance, and even tolerance of conduct which, under
ordinary circumstances, would be incompatible with the
dignity of the Crown.
These convictions, however,do not prevent me from deeply
regretting the evils of the late war, and especially so if any
of the natives are under the impression that it arose out
of an act of injustice committed against them by the Go-
vernment. I heartily share your anxiety to remove, so far
as lies in our power, any such belief for the future, and it
was with that hope that I at once signified to you my ap-
proval of the course you have taken in relinquishing the
completion of the Waitara purchase, without further inves-
tigation, even though that course goes beyond what I be-
lieve strict justice to require, and is exposed to the dangers
pointed out by your responsible advisers. Those dangers
are of course increased by the unfortunate chance by whirl
the massacre of Lieut. Tragett and his men took place, be-
fore the announcement of the decision which you already
formed. I am far, however, from blaming you for the delay
caused by the discussions between your Ministers sand
your-
self upon so difficult a question—although it would have
been better if the re-occupation of the Tataraimeka Block
and the abandonment of the Waitara had been effected at
one and the same time—and I entirely concur in your
opinion that the subsequent outrage committed by the
natives to the south, unconnected apparently with W. King
and the Ngatiawas, is not a sufficient reason for not doing
what you decided ought to be done at the Wait-am
In conclusion,
1u
onlyto express my earnest hope
that the gained by General Cameron and
the troops, together with a firm attitude on your part, decisiveel sn
I success have
sup-
ported by your Ministers, will make it impossible for the
natives to resist the nature of a policy dictated by the de-
sire to root out a belief in wrong done, and a suspicion of
wrong intended against them, which might form an obstacle
in the way of their reconcilement with their European fel-
lew-subjects and with their Sovereign.--I have
NEWCASTLE.
Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B.

THE LATE ADMIRAL HAMELIN.—Admiral Ha-
melin, whose death was announced in the Moniteur
yesterday, will be well remembered :in England as the
coadjutor of Admiral Deans Pandas in the Black Sea during
the Crimean war. This distinguished naval officer was born
Sept. 2, 1796. He was the nephew of Admiral Baron Ha-
melin, a sailor who saw much service under the First Empire.
At the age of 11 his uncle placed him as a midshipman on
board the Venus, and while yet a boy he saw a great deal of
fighting. In 1812, having obtained a commission, he took part
in the expedition to the Scheldt. His promotion was rapid,
notwithstanding the peace which followed the battle of
Waterloo. In 1828 he became a captain, and in 1542 a rear-
admiral. The Crimean war found him maritime prefect of
Toulon, and he was then selected for the command of the
Black Sea fleet. The memorable leading of the French
troops previous to the battle of the Alma was effected under
his direction. During the attack on Sebastopol forts of the
17th of October, a shell struck the quarter-deck of the Ville
de Faris, and killed Lieut. Sommelier by Admiral Iras"k.
lin's side. He himself was knocked down by the shot a
c
He rose and continued to command his vessel
say was
storm of Russian projectiles. His conduct on thlt
rewarded by his promotion to the rank of a fuj.,.o,_._r
of
On the death of M. Paces he was appointedornib"-
t , when he
Marine, which office he held from
who is captain
for of the Legion of Honour. leaves ft 4
d command of the
retired to the snug and honourable ploBstssoi,::Grand Chancel
in the navy, and at this moment Heaves in
only a few
weeks
Bretagne. His daughter was 1
spent
advanced the
but the admiral feeling
before his death. The wedding
his en! present at the nuptial. 4. The
mac[
been fixed for Jan. 5,
time in order that he might b,,ap
be
buried
The funeral will take P1"0 °4 Thursday. the lavalidea.
Emperor has ordered that he 81112