A.—l

20

by direct negotiation with that Power, by the solemnity of a Treaty, and by a formal engagement with the Canadian Delegates. The undersigned has felt it to be so important that any negotiations which may take place with the United States for the re-establishment of free commercial intercourse between them and Canada, should be untrammelled, that ho has perhaps entered at needless detail into a review of the past history of this question, and possibly gives rise to the impression that in carrying on these negotiations in the future it is intended, or that it will be necessary to disregard the sound rules of political economy adverted to by my Lords, or practically to violate the Internation.il Treaty engagements of Great Britain entitling foreign Powers to participate in any concessions which Canada may grant to the United States. If the obnoxious clause were put in operation, it would only renew in effect an almost identical provision in the Act of 1849 and in the Treaty of 1554. In the correspondence adverted to in the Despatch of His Grace, which took place on the subject of the Treaty, it was shown that its operation was not to put an end to, nor even to diminish in any sensible degree, the import from other places than the United States of articles admitted free under its provisions, nor to subject either England or foreign countries to any practical disadvantage in reference to the import of their products into Canada. Any exemptions which the United States and Canada might respectively find it for their advantage to accord, could hardly, in their very nature, influence the trade of either country with foreign nations, since they would probably be limited to the interchange of those products of the two countries which, from their proximity, each might profitably interchange with the other, but which neither would receive to any sensible extent from other nations, even if no reciprocal arrangements existed. The inquiry made by His Grace touching the articles enumerated in Schedule D, viz., " AVhether " there would be any serious inconvenience to Canada, in the application of the same exemption from '" duty to similar articles from all other foreign countries and from Great Britain," in case Canada admitted them free from the United States, will be answered by the subjoined table, which distinguishes the amount of duty collected on each of those articles, the growth aud produce of the United States, the growth and produce of Great Britain, and the growth and produce of foreign countries. In conclusion, the undersigned trusts that, as the circumstances of political exigency and the important national considerations which, as stated by Her Majesty's Government, led to the conclusion of the former Treaty of Reciprocity with the United States, still exist, —and in even a greater degree than previous to the date of the Treaty, —and as the interests of Canada continue to be seriously affected, Her Majesty's Government will not refuse to give the same weight to these considerations as before; and that in any future negotiations between Canada and the United States, in reference to their trade relations, the Dominion will receive the co-operation and influence of Her Majesty's Government. It will be the endeavour of Canada to see that they involve no substantial violation Qf tho Treaty engagements of Great Britain, nor any practical departure from those sound economical principles upon which the undersigned has already expressed his opinion they should be based. JonN Rose, Ottawa, 3rd September, 1868. Minister of Finance.

No. 13. Copy of a DESEATCH from Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to the Eight Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. (No. 101.) Government House, Wellington, My Lord, — New Zealand, 2nd December, 1872. 1. I have the honor to transmit herewith six copies of the Statistical Eegister (or " Blue Book ") of New Zealand for 1871. Prefixed is the customary Eeport by the Eegistrar-General. 2. In my Despatch No. 63, of the 9th July ultimo (with which I forwarded the Blue Book for 1870), and on previous occasions, I made some remarks on the disadvantage of the delay which had taken place for several years past in the publication of the annual volume of the Statistics of this Colony. I added that I was assured by the proper local authorities that this delay had been caused principally by the difficulty of procuring certain minor details from the Provinces, but that the preparation and printing of the returns would proceed more rapidly in the future. It will be seen that this assurance has been in some degree made good this year. 3. So short a time has elapsed since the transmission of the Statistics for 1870, that I have little to add to the comments contained in my Despatches No. 63 of 1872, and No. 76 of 1871, to which I beg permission to refer. It will be perceived that the progress of New Zealand during the ten years between the Census of 1861 and the Census of 1871 has been very remarkable, especially when it is remembered that those years were for the most part a period of war and disturbance.