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PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE

discretion and judgment of yourself and your colleague, they are willing themselves to be bound by any agreement to which you may jointly become parties ; and they will use their best endeavours toobtain the assent of the Legislature to such agreement if such a course should be found necessary. I have, &c. The Hon. John Hall, &c. E. W. Staffoed.

No. 10. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. E. W. Staffoed to Ceosbie Waed, Esq. Sib,— Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 29th January, 1867. I have the honor to inform you that the Government of New Zealand has been invited by the Governments of Victoria and New South AVales to send Representatives to a Conference of Delegates from the several Australian Colonies for the discussion and determination of all matters connected with postal communication between those Colonies and Great Britain, and that the New Zealand Government has acceded to the proposal. So far as the Government is at present informed, the Conference will be held in the City of Melbourne, in the month of February next, and the delegates to be appointed will be invested with full powers to act on behalf of their respective Governments. Understanding that vou are willing to undertake the task of representing, in conjunction with the Postmaster-General, the Colony of New Zealand at the Conference in question, I have the honor to inform you that the Government will be glad to obtain for the Colony the advantage of your services as one of its Representatives, and I enclose a warrant duly accrediting you in that capacity. Under the circumstances under which the proposed Conference is about to be held, and having regard to the impossibility of providing by specific written instructions for the many unforseen contingencies which it is possible may arise during its sitting, it is considered that rather than attempt to guide you by such instructions, it will be better that you should be placed in possession of the views of the Government by the Postmaster-General, with whom the whole question has been fully discussed by the Cabinet; and this course will accordingly be adopted. With regard to the extent of your powers to bind the Colony by any specific agreement, I am to state that while the Government is of course unable to promise the assent of the Legislature to any measures to which such assent may be indispensable, yet, looking to the great importance of fixed and definite results being arrived at by the Conference, and to the confidence which they repose in the discretion and judgment of yourself and your colleague, they are willing themselves to be bound by any agreement to which you may jointly become parties ; and they will use their best endeavours to obtain the assent of the Legislature to such agreement if such a course should be found necessary. I have, &c, Crosbie Ward, Esq., M.G.A., Lyttelton. E. W. Staffobd.

No. 11. G. GritET, Governor. If is Excellency lite Governor of the Colony of New Zealand in pursuance and exercise of all powers and authorities him in this behalf enabling, doth hereby appoint The Hon. JOHN Hall, Esq., Postmaster-General of New Zealand, and a Member of the Executive Council of the said Colony; and Cbosbie Wabd, Esq., a Member of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, to be Representatives of the Colony of New Zealand at a Conference of Representatives of Australian Colonies to be held in the month of February, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, at Melbourne, in the Colony of Victoria, for the full discussion of all matters connected with Ocean Postal Communication. Given under the hand of His Excellency Sir George Grey, Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, Governor and Commander-in-Chicf in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, at Christchurch, and issued under the Seal of the Colony, this fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred ;uk! sixty-seren. ______ m ___^____ E. W. Staffobd. No. 12. Copy of a Letter from the Hon. H. Paekes to the Hon. E. "W. Staffobd. Sib, — Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, New South Wales, 18th January, 1867. I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of December 31st, informing me that the Government of New Zealand will be prepared to send Representatives to the Postal Conference of the Australian Colonies whenever the time and place of meeting have been determined. '2. By reference to my letter of December 10th to the Chief Secretary of Victoria, a copy of which was enclosed to you with my communication of December 11th, it will be seen that the month of February w aa mi med by this Government for holding the Conference, and that the choice of Melbourne or Sydney as the place of meeting was left for the decision of the other Colonies. It was hoped that New Zealand would have intimated her wishes in this respect to the Governments of Victoria and New South Wales. 3. On receipt of your letter, now under reply, 1 telegraphed to Mr. McCulloch, and have received answer as follows : —" No day named. The delay in communicating with New Zealand will prevent the naming of an earlier day than the 25th or 26th of next month." This telegram also informs me that Tasmania and South Australia will send delegates, but that no final decision had been received from Queensland.