Civil Secretary's Office,

November 20th, 1849.

HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE GREY, Governor-in-Chief and Vice Admiral in and over the Islands of New Zealand and its dependencies, has been pleased to make the following appointments:

To be Registrars of the Vice Admiralty Court:

Thomas Outhwaite, Esquire,
Robert Rona Snr Sasn, Esquire.

To be Marshals of the said Court:

Perceval Berry, Esquire,
Henry St. Hill, Esquire.

By His Excellency's Command,

Andrew Sinclair,
Civil Secretary.

No. 32.
Downing Street, May 23, 1849.

Sir,—I transmit to you herewith Copies of certain resolutions which appear to have passed at a meeting of the directors and shareholders of the New Zealand Company on the 27th ult., which was held for the purpose, as it was intimated, of adopting means for effectually securing New Zealand for being made a penal colony. I have not yet received any communication from the Directors of the Company on the subject, but I transmit in connexion with the Resolutions a report of the proceedings at the meeting as extracted from the New Zealand Journal. The grounds of the apprehension asserted are chiefly the following:

First, the general declarations of the Prime Minister and Home Secretary with respect to the new plan of dispersing convict Emigrants over many colonies; Secondly, the fact that although when the British Colonization of New Zealand was commenced by this Company, an emphatic pledge was given by Lord Normanby, as the organ of the Crown, at the head of the Colonial Office, that convicts should never be sent to New Zealand, yet, ere long, the Colonial Office sererely despatched to New Zealand a ship full of convict boys from Parkhurst Prison, Lord Normanby's pledge being evaded by the grant of a pardon to the convicts on their disembarkation in New Zealand, so that in Law, since a pardoned convict is as if he had never been convicted, these Criminals were not convicts when put ashore in New Zealand.

Thirdly, the appearance in the Colony of a despatch from Lord Grey to the Governor, by which his Lordship points out New Zealand as one of the Colonies to which the new plan of sending out convicts conditionally pardoned, or as free Exiles, may be properly applied; and lastly, the fact that this despatch has been withheld from the papers relating to New Zealand annually laid before Parliament, together with the fact that the Court of Directors of this Company, notwithstanding their intimate relations with the Colonial officers, and their known repugnance to convict introduction to New Zealand, have been unable to learn the proprietors that the colonial office does not intend to treat New Zealand as it has treated the Cape Colony.

1st.—With regard to the convict boys from Parkhurst prison, I need scarcely remind you that the only party who were sent out to the colony proceeded after back as the year 1842 under the circumstances stated in Lord Stanley's despatch No. 42, of the 25th of May of that year, that they were all settled within the district of Auckland, at a distance from the Company's settlements—that there was no difficulty in finding employment for them—and that at the date of the last report sent home from their guardian, viz., 1st March, 1843, they were regarded as generally giving satisfaction to their masters, although a subsequent report from the Protector of Aborigines spoke unfavourably of some of them. In consequence of that less favourable report, you were informed by Mr. Gladstone's despatch, No. 17, of the 30th March, 1846, not only that no more of those boys had been sent out, but that there was no intention of sending any further number.

That despatch was published in a Parliamentary paper, as far back as in May, 1846, and since that date no Parkhurst boys have been sent to the colony since that date.

2nd.—The despatch which I addressed to you on the 1st of March, 1847, No. 12 (Military) had reference to the question of employing a small body of convicts on the works under the superintendence of the Commanding Officer of Royal Engineers. The measure was suggested by that officer, and the suggestion was forwarded with your Despatch, No. 104, of the 6th November, 1846. I perceive that you dissented from that recommendation, not on the ground of any demoralizing effect which the presence of the convicts might have generally in the colony, but from the danger which you thought might result from mixing up men of that class with natives of so peculiar and warlike a character as the New Zealanders; and you then suggested the employment of a larger body of sappers and miners. I had already, as you were then informed, taken measures for supplying the deficiency of labour complained of by the selection amongst the military pensioners sent out to the colony of 50 men who had worked as artisans in the peculiar branches required, and I adopted the further measure of requesting the Master