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96

physical stamina should be sent to the colony. It was proposed by the Eoyal Commission that emigrants should bo submitted to the same medical examination as recruits, or persons insuring their lives. It was necessary for me to answer this, by showing in detail that a physical examination of such a prolonged aud exhaustive nature was incompatible with the instructions I had received to send out a number which, at that time, had risen to 4,000 emigrants a month; that there were, besides, insuperable difficulties and grave objections to the institution of either of such examinations; and finally, that if it were practicable, such a system would involve an enormous expense, entirely disproportioned to the proposed advantage. It was further suggested that, in consequence of the alleged habitual neglect of infant children by their parents, the children should be messed together by themselves. I saw grave difficulties in establishing and working such a system. I saw grave natural objections to it, if these difficulties could be overcome. I repeat, it is not possible I could have treated such topics in a tone of intolerable disrespect. 4. I trust that after this complete disclaimer upon my part of the feeling which alone could have communicated a character of disrespect to my letter, the Government will see reason to reconsider their decision, as I should greatly regret, when the correspondence of this department is laid before Parliament, that it should suppose I had neglected to reply to the suggestions of such an important Commission, placed before me, as they had been, in so forcible a light in your letter of 29th June, 1874, No. 181. I have, &c., I. E. Featiieeston, The Hon. the Premier. Agent-General.

No. 139. The Agent-Geneeal to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaey. (No. 270.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sic,— . 4th May, 1875. I have the honor to forward, for the information of the Government, copies of a despatch* which I have received from the Hon. the Premier on the subject of the letter which I addressed to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration on the 10th of January last concerning the recommendations embodied in the report of the Royal Commission on the ship " Scimitar," and also of my rejih't to Mr. Vogel. In asking you to submit the explanations contained in my letter to the Hon. the Premier for the consideration of the Government, I take leave to express the hope that they may avail to remove the misconception of my meaning which has evidently arisen, and to cause them to reconsider the decision at which lam informed they had arrived. I beg to repeat to you, and have the honor to request that you will convey to the Government, my sincere and solemn assurance that any thought of disrespect either to the Government or to the Koyal Commission, in the writing of that letter, was absolutely absent from my mind. I have, &c, I. E. PEATHEESTOIsr, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Agent-General.

No. 140. The Agent-Geneeal to the Hon. the Peejiiek. 7, "Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sib,— 11th May, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 24th ultimo, Pr. 0 78-75, informing me that your attention has been directed to four letters of mine on the subject of the Immigrants' Land Act, written in reply to your despatches on the same subject. 2. I must begin by saying that I have read with most sincere regret your statement that you are willing to allow me all the satisfaction I may have derived from the fact that a certain advertisement issued by this office," of which you subsequently complained, was originally appended to your own despatch, with an instruction to me to give it general publicity. I owe it to my own character to say that lam incapable of deriving a feeling of satisfaction from any such circumstance. It is not, I take leave to say, by any means natural to me to make the utmost of that fact, or to make any other use of it than such as my official 'duty and the circumstances of the case oblige me to do. When in your despatch of the Ist July, 1874, No. 186, you communicated to me your telegraphic correspondence with His Honor the Superintendent of Otago, in which you stated that a "grave error had been committed somewhere in relation to that advertisement," and that you should be obliged to him if he would " telegraph you a literal copy of the advertisement, that you might discover where the fault rested;7' and when you stated in another telegraphic message to his Honor that you could not " suppose the Agent-General could be cognizant of an advertisement so inaccurate in its terms," and that "the General Government were free from any responsibility " in it —when, further, you invited his Honor to telegraph to the Otago Emigration Agent, Mr. Auld, to set the advertisement right, and. in your despatch to me above cited referred to it as a very grave error on my part, and proceeded thcnco to express your general disappointment with my conduct in relation to the Act, it became absolutely necessary for me, in defence of my own character and of this department, to draw your attention to the fact that the advertisement was, word for word, your own suggestion. I may add that it was my duty to the Government not to allow you to continue under the misapprehension which had * No. 70, D.—l, 1875. t ro. 138, ante.