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No. 72. The Hon. Sir J. Vogel to the Agent-General. 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sir,— 29th April, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 21st, in reply to mine of April 7th, respecting the despatch to Wellington of emigrants for Taranaki, Nelson, and Westland. 2. It is impossible for me to enter into a lengthy correspondence upon this subject. I will forward your letter to the Minister for Immigration; and I am far from saying that he will not be satisfied with the explanation you give. 3. I must, however, say that the passages you quote from my letter of October, 1873, were meant to be exceptional in their operation; and I must remind you that since the date of that letter express and strict instructions have been given to you on the subject of the Taranaki and Nelson emigration. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand. Julius Vogel.

No. 73, The Hon. Sir J. Vogel to the Agent-General. 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sir— 4th May, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 28th April, in reply to mine of 15th April. 2. I am sorry you should defend a despatch concerning wdiich, as I informed you, such an expression of opinion had been telegraphed to me. That expression of opinion was made without any previous communication with me. 3. You allege that your despatch could not have been disrespectful, because it was not intended to be so. You will allow me to suggest to you, that habitually regarding with suspicion, and something allied to contempt, the instructions and recommendations sent to you from the colony, may lead you into disrespectful communications without your specially intending to give them that character. On looking over the original despatch to which yours was a reply, I observed, amongst other notes, the words " absolutely absurd," in your handwriting, opposite a passage which it contained. Putting on one side the fact of your making such a note to a document which remains a record of your department, it is not unnatural that your reply, based on such a note, should take the character of which the Cabinet complains. 4. As you have raised the question, I have no hesitation in saying that I think your letter was most disrespectful. In explanation of this opinion, I may state that I think the tendency to object to anything proposed by the Government, and the disposition to seize particular points of letters instead of the broad and general meaning, and, ignoring the context, to found upon such points pages of unnecessary writing, are evidences of disrespect, whether intentional or not. In scarcely any of your lengthy letters do you take a fair view of the communications to which you are replying. In the letter in question, you would have saved yourself great trouble if you would have observed that, in forwarding you the recommendations of the Royal Commission concerning an exhaustive medical examination, I used the words, " This points to a complete reform in the present system of medical inspection. Of the necessity of a reform I have no doubt; but whether it should take the exact form recommended by the Commissioners is a question upon which I am not prepared immediately to give an opinion. I desire, however, that you will give the matter your very earnest consideration, and lose no time in taking such steps as may most commend themselves to your judgment, in order to prevent, in future, the grave consequences of insufficient medical examination and inspection of the immigrants." If, instead of waiting pages on the subject, you had said you were of opinion that some of the features of a life assurance or recruit examination were objectionable, and that you would therefore modify the proposal, whilst at the same time endeavouring to make the examination something more than a form, it would have been clear that you desired to meet the wishes of the Government. Instead of that, you threw ridicule on the proposal, and showed no disposition to remedy the entirely unsatisfactory medical examinations of which complaints had so often been made. 5. Similarly, you gave yourself great trouble about the recommendation concerning the children's mess. The practice of having a separate mess for children, so far as first-class passengers are concerned, exists in the best steam lines; and, both in respect of the nature of the food and the mode of cooking it, the plan is at once a boon to the children and a convenience to the parents. Your laboured attempt to see in the proposal an insult to the female immigrants and a violation of the duties and rights of maternity seems to me utterly wanting in justification. 6. I shall forward a copy of this correspondence to the colony. I cannot say what course my colleagues will adopt concerning it. I have, Sec, The Agent-General for New Zealand. Julius Vogel. By Authority: Gbohge Didsbcbt, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB7s. Price Is. Gd.]