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No. 54. The Hon. H. A. Atkinson to the Agent-General. (No. 89.) Sir,— Wellington, 16th April, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 5, 10th January, 1875, and to say, in reply, that it appeared to me to be of so unbecoming a character that I felt it my duty to bring it under the notice of my colleagues. The question having been carefully considered, the Government decided to have expunged from the Public Records of the colony the record of your letter No. 5, dated 10th January, 1875, and it has been expunged accordingly. I have therefore to return your letter, and to point out what I should have thought must be very obvious —that it will be quite impossible to carry on the public business of the colony if such suggestions, whether reasonable or unreasonable, as those contained in my predecessor's letter No. 181, dated 29th June, 1874, are to be met and treated by you as they have been in the letter herewith returned. I have, Sec, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. H. A. Atkinson.

No. 55. The Hon. W. H. Reynolds to the Agent-General. (No. 96.) Sir, — Immigration Office, Wellington, 9th April, 1875. I have the honor to ackowledge the receipt of your letter No. 64, dated 22nd January ultimo, transmitting a letter from your Despatching Officer, covering his remarks in reply to various subjects contained in the reports on certain emigrant ships w 7hich have arrived in the colony, and upon the new dietary scale ordered in my letter No. 338, of 18th November, 1874. I desire to call your attention to the printed copy of the new dietary scale which is appended to Mr. Smith's letter. In schedule B there appears a very grave error. Instead of the schedule as forwarded in my letter of 18th November being substituted for the* old schedule, according to my instructions, it is embodied with it in such a way as to make the dietary scale absurdly large for infants under one year. I append a copy of the schedule as it should be under the instructions referred to. I find, on looking over the draft of the letter No. 338, 1874, that a mistake occurred in schedule C, as forwarded to you, the supply of Liebig's extract of meat having inadvertently been omitted. I have, Sec, William H. Reynolds, (in the absence of the Minister for Immigration). The Agent-General for New Zealand, London.

No. 56. The Hon. H. A. Atkinson to the Agent-General. (No. 105.) Sir, — Immigration Office, Wellington, Ist May, 1875. Referring to your letter No. 81, of the 9th February, relative to the lunatic immigrants who have arrived in Otago, copy of which was forwarded to his Honor the Superintendent, I have the honor to transmit copy of a memorandum upon the subject addressed to Mr. Macandrew by the Immigration Officer. I have, Sec, The Agent-General for New Zealand, London. H. A. Atkinson.

Enclosure in No. 56. Immigration Officer, Dunedin, to His Honor the Superintendent, Otago. Sir, — Dunedin, 14th April, 1875. Two female immigrants, M A T and A A , w 7ho arrived in the ship " Christian McAusland," were both insane on the ship's arrival in port. The former, T , was very violent, and had to be watched both day and night. The insanity of A A was more of a melancholy type. In my memorandum No. 372, of sth January ultimo, addressed to your Honor, referring to four female immigrants who were consigned to the Lunatic Asylum on their arrival —viz., Mrs. S , per " Buckinghamshire "; C S , per " Otago "; A A , per " Christian McAusland "; M A- T , per " Christian McAusland " —I stated that there was sufficient proof adduced that the two former were insane some time before leaving Britain, but as to A— 1— and T there were no such proofs, and consequently the two latter could not be shipped to Britain with any show of reason. As regards the assertion that M A T showed symptoms of insanity before leaving the depot in London, my informants were her own sister wdio accompanied her, and other female immigrants by the same ship. Her eccentricities however did not, at that time, assume the form of insanity, which developed itself when a few weeks at sea. She has now quite recovered her reason, after having been five months in the Asylum, and is filling the situation of a domestic servant. I have, &c, Colin Allan, His Honor the Superintendent of Otago. Immigration Officer.