D—No. 19

As regards the appointment of Mr. Tyler, which you assert to have been made on the recommendation of your predecessor and his resigning his office to me (a proceeding the correctness of which you question), I believe you will find on further enquiry that you labour under some misapprehension, as I have been very distinctly informed, both by your predecessor and by ihe Chief Clerk of the House, that it was upon the recommendation of the litter that Mr. Tyler was appointed, and I presume that gentleman sent in his resignation to the quarter to which he had reason to believe that he owed his appointment, I certainly was not aware when I recommended Mr. George Friend for the appointment that the objections mentioned by you existed to his removal from his present office, and I am prepared to admit that had I known of them I should have felt it my duty to have consulted the Ministry before making the recommendation. But you will probably agree with me that I had no reason to anticipate such an objection as this, when I inform you that Mr. Friend ■was recommended to me both by Mr. McLean and by Mr. Dillon Bell, who were I understand either the actual or the virtual heads of the department in which he is at present employed. Indeed, referring to the Memorandum of Ihe Auditor-General, and more particularly to what he says, with regard to the inadvisability oftransferring Mr. Friend to another department until Mr McLean's consent has been obtained, I think I am justified in assuming that that condition at all events had been fully answered. I conclule by repeating my hope that the House of Representatives may take an early opportunity of settling this matter, and thus prevent further misunderstanding between its Speaker and the Executive. Whatever that decision may be, I feel certain that we shall both cheerfully acquiesce in it. I have, &c., D- Monro,, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

No. 9. THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. Nelson, 22nd May, 1862. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, informing me that a gentleman eminently qualified, as you believe, for the office of Clerk Assistant, will proceed to Wellington with the Government, in order that his services may be temporarily available in that capacity. My right as Speaker virtually to appoint the Clerks of tile House having been already contested by you, and the whole question being in an unsettled state, 1 do not feel called upon either to recommend any other gentleman for the approval of the Executive, or to express any opinion upon the appointment you have temporarily made, beyond saying that I recognize in the act a desire to ward off from the House of Representatives a serious inconvenience which must otherwise have resulted to it. I have, &c, D. Monro, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

No. 10. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, (3th June, 1862. Sill,— I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters noted in the margin, relative to the appointment of a Clerk Assistant to the House of Representatives. A misapprehension still seems to exist in your mind relative to the position which, as a Responsible Adviser of His Excellency the Governor, I have assumed in thi§ matter; and that, I think, is the reason why the position which you claim appears even now indefinite. I have throughout thii correspondence conceded that a Minister, before he advises the Governor as to the appointment of an officer of the House of Representatives, would feel it his duty to consult the Speaker in reference thereto, but if I understand either that you claim the right of making such appointment, or the right of recommendation direct to the Governor or through his Ministers, in such a manner as practically to make that recommendation obligatory on thenijl must demur to the adoption of either of these courses as irregular and unconstitutional. The first of the above courses would altogether do away with the appointment by the Crown, and would not only be unprecedented in the Imperial and Australian Parliaments, but would also be productive of serious inconveniences, among which I may instance the cessation of the office at the end of each Parliament, when, the office of Speaker terminating, all appointments made by him must also necessarily cease.

•11 May, 1862. Do. do.

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APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS