Respecting Visit of the Rev. Samuel Marsden to New Zealand.

I have to report to your Lordship that, on his making an application to me to that effect, I granted leave of absence: to the Rev. Samuel Marsden, the principal chaplain of this colony, to visit the Islands of New Zealand, for the purpose of establishing some missionaries there, in consequence of orders he had received from the Church Missionary Society in England to that effect.

Mr. Marsden sailed from hence in the brig "Active" on the 28th November, 1814, and returned hither on the 23rd March last, bringing with him several chiefs from New Zealand, who had expressed a wish to visit Port Jackson. I gave each of these chiefs a dress, some live stock, and a few other articles, as presents on the part of Government, of which your Lordship I hope will approve; it being my wish to conciliate them to the British interests. Mr. Marsden speaks in high terms of the kind treatment he met with at New Zealand, and of the improved state of civilization of the natives of that country.