A.—No. 1.

3. I am further requested to inform your Lordship that the above quoted Report was adopted by the House of Representatives nemine contradicente ; and that Mr. Stafford, the former Prime Minister, and now leader of the Opposition, who had been Chairman of the Committee, made a motion to the effect " That this House has received with great satisfaction the Report of the Telegraph Committee," which was carried by acclamation. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. E. BOWEN.

No. 26. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G. ~E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimbekley. (No. 109.) Government House, Wellington, My Loud,— New Zealand, 20th November, 1871. I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of the Speech with which, by the advice of my Ministers, I closed, on the 16th instant, the Session for 1871 of the New Zealand Parliament. 2. Enclosed are some further Parliamentary Papers recently published, and of which I annex a schedule; and additional numbers of the New Zealand Hansard. 3. Copies of the Acts passed will be forwarded so soon as the AttorneyGeneral shall have prepared the customary report on them. 4. A large amount of public business has been transacted during the recent Session. I should mention that towards its close a serious difference arose between the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives. Einally, however, an amicable arrangement was effected, on the understanding that certain legal and constitutional questions involved in the dispute should be referred for the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in England. Accordingly, a case is now in preparation, in the terms of Article 405 of the Colonial Regulations, and it will be transmitted by me in due course. 5. The Prorogation Speech contains (as usual) the opinions held by the Ministry and by the majority of the Legislature concerning the present condition of the public affairs of this Colony. I would solicit attention also to the paragraph recording the intelligence, discretion, and ability shown by the Maori chiefs elected by their countrymen to sit in the House of Representatives. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kiniberley. G. E. BOWEN.

Enclosure 1. Vide Journals H. of 8., 1871, p. 399. Enclosure 2. Schedule of Parliamentary Papers. Enclosure 3. N.Z. Hansard, Nos. 17 to 23.

No. 27. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir G-. E. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. (No. 111.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord, — New Zealand, 24th November, 1871. It is with deep grief, in which this entire community sincerely shares, that I announce to your Lordship the death of the able and devoted Bishop Patteson, the head of the Melanesian Mission, under the lamentable circumstances stated in the enclosed Papers. 2. The Melanesian Mission Schooner " Southern Cross " arrived at Auckland on the 31st October ultimo, and reported that Bishop Patteson was killed, on the 20th September ultimo, by the natives of Nukapu, a small islet near Santa Cruz, and one of the Swallow Group, between the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. 3. I have no official information respecting the details of this sad event; but the narrative furnished to the newspapers by the master of the Mission Schooner, and forwarded herewith (Enclosure 1), is fully confirmed by private letters from the surviving Missionaries. 4. It will be remembered that the Melanesian Mission was originally founded by Bishop Selwyn (now Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry), by whom its direction

Enclosures 1 to 4. 1. Extract, N.Z. Herald, Ist Nov., 1871. 2. Southern Cross, Ist Nov., 1871. 3. Leading article, N.Z. Herald, Ist Nov., 1871. 4. Leading article, Southern Cross, Ist Nov., 1871.

22

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OF