11

A.—6.

4. I hope that your Excellency will agree with me that it will be better, for many reasons, that any further official correspondence on this subject, and on all other intercolonial matters, should continue to pass through the ordinary channels used in colonies possessing Parliamentary Government; except, of course, in extreme cases, and when Imperial interests may be directly involved. 5. While believing it to be their duty to place on record tlie opinions expressed in the enclosed Memorandum, the Ministers of Victoria assure me that they are considering favourably the propriety of agreeing, at an early date, to the rescinding of the proclamation objected to by your Excellency. I have, &c, His Excellency the Eight Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart., G-. F. Bowen. New Zealand. Enclosure. Memoeandxjm for His Excellency Sir G. F. Bowek, by the Hon. the Chief Seceetaet, Victoria. His Excellency Sic George Bo wen having forwarded to me a communication addressed to him by His Excellency Sir James Fergusson, Governor of New Zealand, I deem it my duty to submit a statement of the whole facts connected with the issue of the proclamations prohibiting the importation of stock into Victoria, in order that the peculiar and unprecedented course adopted by Sir James Fergusson may be fully understood, as I cannot think His Excellency could have been aware of the whole of the circumstances, or he would not have adopted a course so unusual, and manifestly at variance with the necessities of the case and the spirit in which this Colony had acted towards the sister Colony of New Zealand. The correspondence originated in one of the resolutions of the Intercolonial Conference No. XIV., by which the representatives of the Colonies " having taken into consideration the great danger to which Australian live stock was exposed, from the importation of animals from countries in which infectious diseases prevail," agreed that the importation of cattle, &c, " from any places beyond the Australasian Colonies" should cease for the space of two years from a convenient date, to be fixed afterwards, and advertised in the Times for general information. Very little delay occurred by the respective Governments in giving practical effect to the resolution, and in regular course proclamations were issued by the Governors of the Colonies represented at the Conference, with one exception, for prohibiting importations from all countries lying beyond the Australasian group, the exception being the Governor of New Zealand, the Legislature of that Colony having refused to pass the Bill brought in for the purpose of enabling its Government to co-operate with the rest in so desirable an object. The proclamation of the Governor of New South Wales bears date 17th April, 1873, and runs thus :— " Whereas by section ten of an Act, &c, intituled 'The Imported Stock Act of 1871,' and numbered six, it is enacted that the Governor may, by proclamation in the Government Gazette, restrict or absolutely prohibit for any specified time the importation or introduction of any stock, fodder, or fittings from any other colony or country in which there is reason to believe any infectious or contagious disease in stock exists : And whereas there is reason to believe that the diseases known as rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease in stock exist in almost every colony or country other than the Colonies of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand: Now therefore, I, Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, the Governor aforesaid, with the advice of the Executive Council, do hereby, for a period of two years from the date that this proclamation shall appear in the London Times, restrict and absolutely prohibit the importation or introduction of any stock, fodder, or fittings from any colony or country other than from the Colonies hereinbefore mentioned into any part of the Colony of New South Wales, with the exception of any stock, fodder, or fittings which may have been shipped for this Colony prior to this proclamation appearing in the London Times as before mentioned." Three months after the date of this proclamation, i.e., on July 22nd, the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales addressed a letter to this Government, received July 29th, enclosing a copy of a further proclamation, dated Bth of same month, prohibiting importations of stock, &c, from JSfew Zealand until the Government of that Colony should issue a proclamation to the same purport as the other Colonies had done, and requesting to be informed whether a similar proclamation would be issued by the Government of Victoria. The proclamation Mr. Parkes sent was as follows: — " Whereas by section ten of an Act, &c, &c, the Governor may, by proclamation in the Government Gazette, restrict or absolutely prohibit for any specified time the importation or introduction of any stock, fodder, or fittings from any other colony or country in which there is reason to believe any infectious or contagious disease in stock exists: And whereas it was agreed at the Intercolonial Conference held in Sydney in February last, that all the Australian " (observe, not Australasian) " Colonies should join in a prohibition for two years, to guard against the introduction of rinderpest or foot-and-mouth disease into the Australian Colonies, a proclamation was issued on the seventeenth day of April last, and forwarded to the Agent-General of this Colony for publication in the London Times, prohibiting the introduction of all stock, fodder, or fittings from any colony or country other than the Colonies of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand : And whereas all the Colonies hereinbefore mentioned, excepting New Zealand, have issued similar proclamations: Now therefore, I, Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson, the Governor aforesaid, do, by this my proclamation, hereby totally prohibit the introduction into New South Wales of any stock, fodder, or fittings from the Colony of New Zealand, until such time as the Government of that Colony shall have issued a proclamation, in the London Times, prohibiting the introduction of all stock, fodder, or fittings as before mentioned into that Colony." It will be noticed, first, that the purport of the Conference resolution is given incorrectly in this proclamation, the word Australian being unjustifiably substituted for Australasian, and so making it