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1873. NEW ZEALAND.

PAPERS RESPECTING GOVERNOR'S ALLOWANCES.

Presented to the House of Representatives by command of His Excellency. No. 1. (No. 17.) Government House, Wellington, My Loud, — New Zealand, 21st February, 1873. 1. At the request of my Responsible Advisers, I have the honor to transmit herewith a Ministerial Memorandum respecting the allowances of future Governors of New Zealand. 2. This Memorandum was not intended to refer in any way to me ; and as I am on the eve of my departure from New Zealand, I have, of course, no personal interest whatsoever in the matter. But I thought it right, on public grounds, to make the observations contained in the minute of which I enclose a copy. 3. The further proposals of the present Ministry will be seen in Mr. Waterhouse's second Memorandum, which is also annexed. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. G. P. Bowen.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1. Memorandum by His Excellency the Governor. 18th February, 1873. The Governor received the Ministerial Memorandum, of the 15th January, ult, on the sth inst., after his return from his recent official tour in the Southern Provinces. He will forward it, as Ministers request, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. As the questions alluded to in this Memorandum are not intended to have any personal reference whatsoever to himself, and as, indeed, he being on the eve of his departure from New Zealand, can have no personal interest in them, the Governor thinks it right to make the following remarks : — 1. If it is proposed to curtail in the case of Sir James Fergusson the allowances and advantages enjoyed by his two immediate predecessors (Sir George Grey and Sir George Bowen), it is to be regretted that this proposal was not placed on record before Sir James's appointment was made. It has hitherto been considered improper to reduce the allowances of a Governor after his acceptance of office. Now, Sir James Fergusson's appointment was known in New Zealand about the middle of last November— i.e., two months before the date of the Ministerial Memorandum. It appears that New Zealand already ranks fourth on the list of the British Colonies in revenue, trade, and general importance ; being surpassed in these respects only by the Dominion of Canada, by Victoria, and by New South Wales. But New Zealand ranks fourteenth on the list so far as the salary of the Governor (£4,500) is concerned ; being surpassed in this respect not only by the three Colonies just mentioned, but also by the following, viz. :—Jamaica, British Guiana, Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, South Australia, Mauritius, Ceylon, Hong Kong, and the Straits Settlements. 3. This discrepancy seems in itself anomalous ; and it acquires much practical importance from the fact that the Imperial Act giving retiring pensions to Colonial Governors (28 and 29 Victoria, Cap. CXIIL), expressly provides that the full rate of pension (£1,000) can be granted only "in the case of officers who shall for at least four years have administered the Government of any Colony or Colonies in which the salary of the Governor is not less than £5,000." Consequently, a former Governor of New Zealand (Sir T. Gore Brown) now draws a rate of pension much inferior to the rate to which the Governors of far less important Colonies (such as Guiana or Hong Kong) would be entitled. It is obvious that New Zealand might, for this reason, lose the services of a good Governor. 4. Ministers will doubtless take into consideration the high cost of living, and of servants' wages in New Zealand, as also other aspects of the question which will readily suggest themselves; among them, the recognized public advantage of the exercise of a liberal hospitality on the neutral ground of the Government House.