Lord Lytteltoa asked what were the inten tions of her Majesty's Government with re spect to a loan for which the New Zealand Go vernment has requested the guarantee of this countiy, and called the attention of the house to the present slate of the native question in New Zealand. He feared that it could not be said that aoy improvement* had taken place of recent years in the disposition of the native population. He doubted whether there were now moie than 50,000 of them in existence, whereas but a short time ago they were esti mated at 100,000. They were also poorer than i hey used to be, having sold -a great part of their cattle, and being almost destitute of the means of life. Their religious faith and their morality were aleo decaying. He did not think that the grant of constitution 1 government to the colony of New Zealand was the cause of this state of ihing«; but whether it was or not, it was impossible that we could suspenl those free institutions after once granting them, as had been proposed about three years since by Earl Giey. The proximate cause of the last war was, as Governor Sir G. Grey had admit ted, an error of his own. But even if tha* error had not been committed, he believed that the stale of the native mind wa? such that war could not have been long avoided. He was inclined to believe that that war had upon the whole been conducted in a proper spirit — although he entertained some doubt whether the eviction of natives from certain villages near Auckland was strictly justifiable. The cause of the war was, he conceived, simply that we had not governed New Zealand as we were bound to do. And if we applied the term " rebels " to the natives, we muat do so with great leniency; for it was a fact that the treaty of Waitangi, upon which alone we could ground our claim to sovereignty, was adhered to only by a portion ol the native chiefs. He did not doubt that if we had really governed the island in the spirit of that treaty, the Maoris who have acquiesced in our rule. The fact, however, was, that they had never received that protection for life and property which they had a right to expect. 