G.-No. 8.

No. 27. Hon. Mr. Gisbobne to Mr. Tancbed. Colonial Secretary's Office, Sir,— Wellington, 31st July, 1871. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, enclosing copies of some regulations, to which you desire the Governor's assent, passed at the late sitting of the Council of the New Zealand University. My letter of the 15th instant, which you had not received when you wrote that letter, will have placed you in possession of the views of the Government generally on the subject of the position and action of the Council. In the consideration of the whole question, and of the detached statutes and regulations which you have from time to time forwarded, the Government have felt considerable inconvenience from the want of a consecutive account of the proceedings of the Council, and I shall feel obliged if you would furnish me therewith at your early convenience. In illustration of this, I would point out that in your letter of the 17th ultimo you requested the Government to publish the offer of scholarships, and that it is only in your letter of the 11th instant, now under acknowledgment, that you request the assent of the Governor to the regulations for the establishment of those scholarships, that assent being essential by law to such establishment. AVith respect to the fixing by the Government of the site of the University, I would remind you that the Council was sumnoned to meet at Dunedin, in the hope that arrangements might be undertaken for the ultimate amalgamation of the University of Otago with that of New Zealand, and that before the Government were officially informed of the failure of that object, they were asked to give practical effect to statutes and regulations of the Council, and only informally learned that the Council had passed a resolution deprecating the fixing of any site for the University of New Zealand. The Government think, under all the circumstances, that the best course will be, as pointed out in my letter of the 15th instant, to await the consideration of the subject when the Council and Parliament are in session at the same time, and when it is ho.ped that the result of their deliberations may be to to remove all difficulties and to place the whole matter'on a satisfactory footing. I have, Ac, H. J. Tancred, Esq., W. Gisborne. Chancellor of the New Zealand University, Christchurch.

No. 28. Mr. Tancred to the Hon. Mr. Gisborne. University of New Zealand, Sir, — Christchurch, 11th August, 1871. I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 31st ultimo, No. 391, in reply to mine of the 11th, in which I transmitted copies of regulations relating to scholarships, conditions of affiliation, and appropriation of funds, and requested the Governor's approval of them. In accordance with your request, I transmit, by this post, copies of minutes of proceedings of the Council, addressed to each of His Excellency's advisers. I had already transmitted copies of these documents, as soon as I received them from the printer, to the several members of the Ministry in their capacity of members of the General Assembly. Being pressed for time, and thinking that the Government would thus be put in possession of the information required, it appeared to me that no practical inconvenience would be caused by deferring the transmission of copies for Ministers in their capacity of members of the Government. As regards the delay which occurred in the transmission of regulations relating to scholarships, I have already explained on what grounds the Council assumed that the Governor's approval was not required. Acting on this assumption, the Council thought it essential that the scholarships should be established at once, and without deferring all action in the matter until the Governor's approval could be obtained. It was only on being informed by you that the objects contemplated by the Council could not be obtained without the Governor's approval, that I saw the necessity of submitting the regulations to the Government, in order to obtain that approval. The interval which elapsed between the time when I could have transmitted them, and the time when I actually did transmit them, was one only of three weeks ; and even this comparatively short delay is practically of the less importance, as the Government had already determined not to give effect to these proceedings of the Council until after the meeting of the General Assembly. I conclude from the fact that the Governor's approval to tho statute relative to the convening of future sessions of the Council has not yet been obtained, although you state that the Government intend to recommend it, that the same delay w rould have taken place in dealing with all other regulations or statutes, whether those which were transmitted at an earlier date, or those transmitted at a later date. With regard to the question of fixing the site of the University, I am anxious again, and more fully than I did in my letter of the 6th ultimo, to explain the circumstances under which the Council gave expression to an opinion that it was not desirable, for the present, to fix upon any particular place. That opinion was contained in a communication from the Council to the University of Otago, in answer to a specific question on the subject. 5

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OF THE NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY.