D.—2

30

I have not only to acknowledge the kindness and attention paid to the emigrants on board that ship, but also to your having exerted your influence with the French Government to allow the vessel to be repaired in the Government dockyard, and also to your having consented to act as President of a Court of Inquiry into certain charges preferred against the captain of the ship by some of the emigrants. I have already brought the important services rendered by you on this occasion under the notice of the Foreign Office, and of the Government of New Zealand, and I have little doubt that your services will be recognised by those Governments as fully as they are by me. I have, &c, 1. E. Feathebston, M. Eainals, H. M. Consul, Brest. Agent-General for New Zealand.

Enclosure 15 in No. 26. Consul RArNALS to Dr. Feathebston. Sin,— British Consulate, Brest, 15th April, 1873. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 7th instant, conveying to me, on the part of the Government of New Zealand, their thanks for the services which you are good enough to give me credit for having rendered to the emigrants by the ship " Edwin Fox." It has been gratifying to me to find that my endeavours to be of some service in this matter have been so handsomely recognized by you, as the representative of the New Zealand Government; but I should take too much credit to myself were I to fail to call your attention to the fact that, in endeavouring to carry out your wishes and to perform my duties as Her Majesty's Consul, I was very materially and practically seconded by your Agent, Mr. E. A. Smith, to whom great credit is due for the manner in which all matters relative to these emigrants were finally settled. I avail myself of this occasion to tender you my thanks for having called the attention of the Foreign Office and the Government of New Zealand to the services you give me credit for having rendered. I am, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. Haeet Eainals.

No. 27. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaet. (No. 193.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, "Westminster, S.W., Sib,— Bth April, 1873. Referring to the first paragraph of the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse's Memorandum of 23rd November, last (No. 19), in which he states that "The emigration question is a subject of grave consideration by the Government, and that the failure or success of the policy to which the Colony is pledged in no slight degree depends upon the introduction of immigrants on a scale numerically proportionate to the increased demand for labour, and to the necessity of developing the country which is induced by the heavy drain on our resources for payment of interest upon loans," —I have simply to appeal to the members of the Hon. Mr. Fox's Ministry (of which I was myself a member), whether I did not most urgently, on my return from England, in December, 1870, press upon them that the whole success of the public works policy depended upon their throwing into the Colony, at the earliest possible period, the largest population that could by any means be procured; and I would further appeal to the Hon. Mr. Vogel whether I did not at New York urge upon him the same views. I need not, therefore, say that I cordially concur in every word of the paragraph which I have just quoted from the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse's Memorandum. But in the implied censures which the Government have thrown upon mo in their recent Despatches, Ministers appear to have entirely ignored the following facts : — 1. That the earliest specific instructions I received in regard to emigration were contained in Mr. Gisborne's Despatch, dated 26th November, 1871 (received by me Ist February, 1872), requesting me to introduce during the ensuing year 8,000 statute adults. 2. That on my arrival I found the regulations of the different Provinces so conflicting that it was absolutely necessary to institute a uniform system of regulations ; and that this was framed and agreed upon, at a conference held at my office on the Ist day of December, 1871, at which were present Mr. Auld, Mr. Ottywell, Mr. Morrison, Mr. Carter, and the Key. P. Barclay. 3. That emigration to the Colony having for some years entirely ceased, except in driblets to Canterbury and Otago, it necessarily took some time to organize a staff, and to revive a stream of emigration. 4. That I was instructed not to land emigrants at Otago and Napier during the months of June, July, and August. 5. That emigration is always slack in the months of December, January, and February: for emigrants, clinging to home during the Christmas and New Tear's festivities, and dreading the gales prevalent at that season of the year, are naturally reluctant to leave in those months. 6. That, therefore, owing to instructions issued by the Government against landing emigrants in the months of June, July, and August, and to the reluctance on the part of the emigrants themselves to leave home during the months of December, January, and February, the emigration season waa thus limited, in point of fact, to seven months of the year —namely, from May to November. 7. That while I intimated in various Despatches that I should succeed in inaugurating a stream of emigration in April, which would gradually assume larger and larger dimensions, I never held out to