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Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, 14th. August, 1843.
HIS Excellency the Officer Administering
the Government has been pleased to direct
that the subjoined correspondence between the
Gentlemen forming a deputation from the set-
tlers at Nelson, and this Government, relative to
the late melancholy affray at Wairau, Cloudy
Bay, be published for general information.
By His Excellency's Command,
(For the Colonial Secretary,)
WILLIAM CONNELL.

SIR—

Auckland, 7th August, 1843.

In accordance with your Excellency's
permission as intimated in the interview
which we had with you on Saturday last, we
now submit to you in writing a statement of the
reasons of our being deputed by our fellow set-
tlers at Nelson to proceed to Auckland, and of
the subjects upon which it would be highly satis-
factory to them to receive an assurance of the
views and intentions of Government.

The first object of our mission was, to carry
to the capital, without loss of time, the deposi-
tions taken by the Magistrates at Nelson, and
other documents connected with the deplorable
calamity which had befallen that settlement;
though it may appear that a long period of
time has elapsed between the occurrence of
disaster, and the transmission of the documents
connected with it to Auckland, still when it is
considered that ten days elapsed before any ac-
count of it at all reached Nelson, that it was
then at least a fortnight before several of the
witnesses who had been present in the affray
arrived, some by sea, and others over land, that
there has been no opportunity of communication
with the capital during that time, and that it
ultimately was necessary to charter a vessel to
convey us to Manukau, we trust your Excellency
will acquit the settlement of negligence, or of
losing time in forwarding to the seat of Govern-
ment what authentic documents they were able
to collect upon a subject of such vital interest
and importance to the Colony.

At the same time that we presented these
documents to your Excellency, it was the wish
of those who deputed us that we should repre-
sent the general opinion of the settlement upon
the occurrence, and the light in which it is
there viewed.

The depositions which your Excellency has
received, certainly lay before you the marked
facts of the case, and constitute the basis of the
opinion which you will form as to the right or
the wrong of what has been done, but your
Excellency must be at the same time aware that
the most simple facts often admit of varying
shades of interpretation, and that in no case can
a just conclusion be arrived at until motives as
well as actions are thoroughly understood.

We have no hesitation then in stating that it
is the general opinion of the settlers at Nelson,
that our countrymen who were killed at the
Wairau plain, lost their lives in endeavouring
to discharge their duty as Magistrates and Bri-
tish subjects, obedient of British law, and that
the persons by whom they were killed are mur-
derers in the eyes of common sense and justice.

It is not our intention, after the interview
with which your Excellency honored us on
Saturday, again to argue the case, but we may
be allowed in a few words to recapitulate the
main points upon which that opinion is founded
at Nelson; they are briefly as follow:

In the first place, that the Aborigines of New
Zealand are British subjects and under British
law.

In the second place, that they had burnt
down a house, built by a servant of the New
Zealand Company, upon land which it claims to
have purchased, and which claim has not yet
been proved to be invalid.

In the third place, that a warrant having been
issued for the apprehension of the perpetrators of
this outrage, its execution was resisted by a large
body of the Aborigines, with arms in their hands;
and that upon the unfortunate discharge of a
gun, by accident, on the side of our countrymen,
(no orders to fire having been given), they fired
upon those who were endeavouring to put the
law in execution, and shot several of them.

In the fourth place, that the majority of our
countrymen having fled, those who remained
laid down what arms they had and surrendered
themselves prisoners, and that after a lapse of
some time, unresisting, and without the power
of resistance, they were savagely and deliberately
massacred.

As to the motives which induced our late
lamented Police Magistrate to issue the warrant,
we conscientiously believe them to have been
none other than those of duty.

As to the imputed charge of rashness and
want of deliberation, which we have heard
advanced, we may observe, that the Police
Magistrate had the advice of three other Magis-
trates, and their unanimous concurrence; and
we may further mention, that the question was
one which had not then for the first time pre-
sented itself; it had months before been exam-
ined and deliberated upon. Upon the occasion
of a similar outrage having been perpetrated by
Rangihaiata, at Port Nicholson, and a warrant
for his apprehension having been refused, Mr.
Thompson, in conversation with one of us,
expressed his opinion that such conduct was
calculated to weaken the influence of British
law upon the native mind, and to lead to the
belief of impunity in the commission of still
further outrages.

And we cannot but observe now, that had
that former offence of his been dealt with in a
decided manner, as in law and justice we con-
ceive it should have been, this dreadful calamity
might never have occurred, by which so much
life has been lost, so many men of the highest
moral and intellectual rank have miserably per-
ished, the relations between the two races been
rendered, to say the least of it, precarious, and
the civilization of New Zealand undoubtedly
thrown back.

In stating what we have done above, we are