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DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF

with the usual report on them, but they will be forwarded by next month's mail, together with copies of all the Parliamentary Papers not yet forwarded, and of the New Zealand Hansard. I have, &c, The Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. G. E. BOWEN.

No. 18. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. (No. 117.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord, — New Zealand, 12th September, 1869. At the request of my Eesponsible Advisers, I have the honor to transmit, and to recommend to early and favourable consideration, the enclosed Ministerial Memorandum respecting the amount of gold exported from New Zealand. I have, fee, The Eight Hon. Earl Granville, K.G. G. E. BOWEN.

Enclosure in No. 18. Memorandum by Mr. Vogel. On the 25th November last, Mr. Fitzherbert submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies a Memorandum, in which he requested that arrangements might be adopted by which the returns published by authority in London should show the total quantity of gold, the produce of New Zealand, imported into the United Kingdom. In reply to that Memorandum, a copy of a Report from the Commissioner of Customs was forwarded to Mr. Fitzherbert by Sir F. Rogers, in which it was stated that gold, the produce of New Zealand, reaching the United Kingdom through Australia, could only be classified and treated as gold from Australia. During the year 1868, the total value of gold exported from New Zealand to the United Kingdom amounted to £2,492,709 ; of this, only gold to the value of £470,989, or less than a fifth of the whole, was shipped direct; the remainder passed through Australia in transit, and would accordingly be classified in the returns published in England as Australian gold. Tho returns in question, therefore, exhibit the quantity of gold imported from this Colony in most unfair and unfavourable contrast to that shown as imported from Australia. It is a matter of the highest importance, both as bearing on the credit of the Colony and on its character as a field for emigration, that accurate information respecting its production of gold should appear in the official returns published in the United Kingdom. Ministers therefore desire that your Excellency will be good enough to bring this question again under the notice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with a view to its being submitted to the Lords of the Treasury, accompanied by a request that they will be pleased, if there are no departmental objections in the way, to issue such instructions to the Customs authorities in England as will cause the total quantity of gold imported into the United Kingdom from this country to be shown in the Board of Trade Returns, instead of showing, as at present, only the small proportion which is imported direct. In order to show that full and precise information on this point reaches the Customs in England, it is only necessary to refer to the enclosed copies of letters from the Governments of Victoria and New South Wales, which state that New Zealand gold shipped to England through those Colonies, is always clearly distinguished on the outward manifests of the vessels on board which it is shipped.

Sub-Enclosure 1 to enclosure in No. 18. Treasury, New South Wales, Sir,— ' Sydney, 4th August, 1869. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the Honorable the Chief Secretary's letter of the 17th June last, addressed to Mr. Robertson, with reference to the classification, in the Board of Trade Return, of gold shipped from your Colony to this port for transhipment to England, as tho produce of " Australia," and requesting information with regard to the manner of entering and clearing same at our Custom House. I have the honor to inform you, in reply, that the Collector of Customs, to whom the communication was referred, has reported upon the same as follows : — " The confusion here complained of must, I think, rest with those who compile the return for the " Board of Trade. In the clearance of all ships taking gold from this Colony, such gold is clearly dis- " tinguished as the produce of ' New South Wales,' ' New Zealand,' and ' Queensland,' &c. " It is true that during the last quarter of 1868 this practice was abolished by the officer then in " charge of the department, but I immediately restored it upon my return to oflice in January last, " and it is impossible to give the required distinction more clearly than it is given in our present " clearances." Trusting that this explanation will prove satisfactory so far as the Customs authorities here are concerned, The Under Colonial Secretary, Wellington, I have, &c, New Zealand. Henry.