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D.—2

No. 109. The Agent-Geneeal to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration. (No. 52.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sir, — 22nd January, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd October, in which you express your satisfaction at being informed of the active measures taken by me in regard to "The Immigrants Land Act, 1873." 2. You proceed to observe that the department is still flooded with applications under the Act, of such an irregular character that they cannot be entertained, many of them emanating through this office. I have to request that you will direct an exact record to be kept in the department of the names, dates, and special particulars of all irregular applications purporting to emanate through this office. If a copy of such record be forwarded to me from time to time, I shall be enabled to investigate the cases. It is manifestly impossible for me to make any reply to a statement of so large and general a character as that the department is flooded with irregular applications emanating, in a considerable proportion, through this office. In asking you to direct such a record to be kept, I should, however, request you, beforehand, to read my remarks on a, precis of cases prepared by an official of the department, and appended to your predecessor's despatch of Bth September, No. 2G4. I submit, with much respect, that I have some right to complain that my time should be withdrawn from the arduous and responsible tasks which devolve upon me, in giving various and detailed replies regarding cases, many of them so futile and groundless. In that precis you will find gravely advanced as matter of charge against this department, that I did not give my certificate to persons who sailed for the colony before the Act had been sent to me from New Zealand—persons who were on their way to the colony as assisted emigrants when the Act reached England—persons who pleaded on their arrival in the colony that they were ignorant of the existence of the Act; and, on the other hand, it is also made matter of charge against me, that I gave my certificate or letter of recommendation to persons who seemed to me to fulfil all the conditions of the Act (as I have very fully explained my construction of it in my letter of 15th December, No. 195G), but against whom it was alleged, as an objection of manifest weight, that in one case the applicant was father-in-law to the master of a college, and in the other, that they had come to the colony as first or second class passengers. 3. I take note of your statement that you indorse the instructions conveyed in your predecessor's letter of Bth September, already cited; and I beg to refer you to my letter in reply of 15th December, No. 195G, in which I state my intention of carefully giving those instructions effect, except in respect to the point in which I am obliged, by the terms of the Act, to certify that to my knowledge the applicant has already paid his passage. I have, &c, I. E. Featherston, The Hon. the Minister for Immigration, Wellington, N.Z. Agent-General.

No. 110. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration. (No. 75.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sib,— 9th February, 1575. In continuation of my letter of the 12th January, No. 6, I have the honor to enclose for your information a copy of a report, taken from the columns of the Times newspaper, of the inquiry instituted by the Board of Trade into the causes of the loss of the emigrant ship the " Cospatrick," which was held at Greenwich on the 3rd, 4th, and sth instant. 2. The report of the Court to the Board has. not as yet been made public, and I abstain from remarks on the results of the inquiry until it has been communicated to me. I have, &c, I. E. Featheeston, The Hon. the Minister for Immigration, Wellington. Agent-General.

Enclosure in No. 110. First Day. The official inquiry into the loss of the "Cospatrick" commenced yesterday, at the Greenwich Police Court, before Mr. Patteson and the Board of Trade Assessors —Captain Castle, Captain Pryce, and Mr. Turner. Mr. Arthur Cohen, Q.C., and Mr. Hargrave Hamel appeared for the Board of Trade; Mr. G. Wood Hill for the owners of the " Cospatriek." The Quean, on behalf of the Colonial Government of New Zealand, was made a party to the charter of the ship, together with the Agent-General for New Zealand, and Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co., managing owners of the "Cospatriek;" and the Crown in that capacity, and so far as responsible for the emigration arrangements of the colony, under whose auspices the " Cospatriek " was despatched, was yesterday represented by Mr. Watkin Williams, Q.C., and Mr. Dennistoun Wood. It may briefly be said that the result of the evidence taken yesterday was to confirm on oath the accounts already laid before our readers. Mr. Cohen opened the case by narrating the facts directly connected with the burning of the " Cospatrick," and he made some observations on the main objects of the Board of Trade inquiries, as defined before the Commission on unseaworthy ships. He believed he was authorized to state that the main purpose for which this inquiry and inquiries of a like nature were instituted on behalf of the Board of Trade, was to enable a competent Court to ascertain the cause or causes of the loss, and to