General and Board of Ordnance to send out
a sergeant and 12 sappers and miners who
should direct the labour of the others.

I then pointed out that the employment of
convicts in New Zealand, under the effect of
a general measure of transportation, would be
entirely out of the question, but I suggested
to you that it might deserve consideration
whether a limited number of men of this class,
whose conduct under confinement might render
them worthy of indulgence might not be
sent to the colony, with conditional pardons,
in which, in addition to this, ordinary condi-
tions of such instruments, it might be stipu-
lated that the convicts so pardoned shall work
for the Government for the period of two
years.

I have not been informed by you that this
plan was considered necessary or advisable;
and, indeed, I fully gather from your reports
that the supply of Native labour on the works,
in addition to the European labour otherwise
at the disposal of the Local Government, would
make such a measure quite unnecessary.

3rd.—With regard to the circular despatch
of the 7th August, 1848, which was ad-
dressed to yourself in common with other Go-
vernors, on the question of introducing con-
victs with tickets of leave and conditional
pardons into New Zealand, it is scarcely ne-
cessary to observe that the object of that des-
patch was simply to ascertain whether such a
measure would be acceptable to the colonists
under the conditions proposed, in order that,
if it should prove so, I might then take mea-
sures in accordance with their desires for car-
rying it into effect. The object of this cir-
cular was to apprise various colonies of the sup-
ply of this kind of labour, which was open
to them to obtain, if they thought it desirable.
No doubt New Zealand might have been set
aside altogether, and the information withheld
from it; but I should almost doubt whether
on reflection it will be judged that this would
have been dealing by the colony so fairly as
to put it in possession of the intelligence
which was conveyed to every neighbouring
colony, considered to enjoy favourable cir-
cumstances, and hence to afford the Local Go-
vernment and the public the same option of using,
if they wished, what, in some places, ap-
peared to be deemed a great advantage.

The despatch was not addressed peculiarly
to New Zealand, but was a circular; and it
appeared in its proper place in the very first
series of correspondence on the subject of Se-
condary Punishment, which was laid before
Parliament after it was written.

As the intentions of her Majesty’s Govern-
ment would seem to have been so much mis-
apprehended, I thought it convenient to re-
capitulate the whole correspondence on the
subject, in order that you may be enabled to
remedy any misconception which may be cre-
ated in the colony.

I need scarcely add that I should have been
most willing to have afforded any assurance
necessary to allay the apprehension expressed
in the accompanying resolutions, if the parties
concerned had thought proper to afford me
the opportunity of so doing before giving pub-
licity to their sentiments.

(Signed) ............... Grey

To Governor Grey.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, 6th December, 1849.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE LIEUTE-
NANT GOVERNOR, has been
pleased to direct the insertion in the Gover-
ment Gazette of following Despatch from his
Excellency the Governor-in-Chief.

By His Excellency’s command,

ALFRED DOMETT,
Colonial Secretary.

Government House,
Auckland, 29th September, 1849.

Sir,—Upon referring to the New Mun-
ster Government Gazette of the 20th July
last, in which were published copies of my
Despatches to the Secretary of State, No.
106, of the 29th November last, and No.
4 of the 7th December last, I find that a very
material error appears in the published copy
of my Despatch No. 106.

From the enclosed extract from the ori-
ginal draft of that Despatch you will find
that in relation to my recommendations re-
garding the mode in which the Provincial
Councils should be constituted, the language
I used was, “one third of the whole Coun-
cil being appointed by Her Majesty, and two
thirds being elected by the inhabitants of the
Province,” whilst in the published copy of
my Despatch I am, by the omission of the
words in italics, made to say “one third of
the whole Council being elected by the in-
habitants of the Province.”

I cannot here ascertain whether this error
arose from some mistake at Auckland, in
the office of the Civil Secretary, or from
some mistake in your office at Wellington,
nor does it appear material that this
point should be ascertained; but what is
material is, that the inhabitants of the co-
lony should be made acquainted with the
exact nature of the recommendations which
I have made to Her Majesty’s Government
upon a point in which their interests are so
largely concerned, and that all doubt should
be removed from their minds by their being