No. 42.
Copy of a Despatch from the Right Hon. Earl Granville, E.G., to Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G.

I have received your Despatches Nos. 14 and 20, of the 31st January and 12th February: the former enclosing a report from Colonel McDonnell of a successful expedition made by him, at the head of a party of Native cavalry, to the pa of the rebel chief Titokowaru; the latter forwarding a despatch from Colonel Whitmore, reporting the evacuation of the pa by Titokowaru, and other positions which he had occupied. I am greatly shocked to hear from Colonel McDonnell's report of the barbarous manner in which the remains of some of the colonial troops were treated, and I can hardly express the feelings of horror with which I learn that there is reason to fear that one of them was burnt alive. I am glad to find that Colonel Whitmore's proceedings on the West Coast appear likely to justify the estimate of his capacity which I was led to form by the accounts of his success in the neighbourhood of Turanga.