7

D.—2a.

despatch of Ist July, 1874. The sentence you quote from it was meant to express the opinion of the Government, that if persons not entitled to land under the Act were making such efforts to obtain it, there would have been no lack of persons glad to take advantage of the Act, and entitled to do so, had you exerted yourself in the matter as you had been asked to do. You now justify your recommendation in the case of Mr. TT'Ben, on the ground that you had received a memorandum from Mr. Lowther, the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, who had been moved by Mr. Horsman, " an eminent member of Parliament and late Minister." You say you do not think you " could in common courtesy or official propriety have treated the recommendation of the Colonial Office in any less respectful way." I concur with you that you should treat the Colonial Office respectfully; but your idea of respect is in this case somewhat extreme, and, you will permit me to say, remarkable, considering the unreserved terms in which you address the Government you more immediately serve. You have admitted that Mr. U'Ren had no more claim to land than the persons who went to New Zealand with Captain Cook ; and, so believing, it seems to me to have been wholly unnecessary to lead Mr. Horsman and Mr. Lowther to believe the contrary. It would have been quite consistent with propriety, and respectful, had you replied that the power of approving immigrants was expressly given to you by the Act, and that you were of opinion Mr. U'Een's case was not one to be dealt with under its provisions. Mr. Horsman and Mr. Lowther did no more than bring under your notice the case of a gentleman who had been reputably recommended to them. Cases of the kind constantly occur; and it would be very embarrassing if feelings of propriety and respect compelled an Agent-General to recommend all such cases to the favourable consideration of his Government. 6. I cannot agree with you that blame attaches to the officer who prepared the precis of cases. 7. I must decline to follow you in your various arguments respecting the Act. Correspondence of this kind entails a great deal of unnecessary trouble. In preparing my letter of instructions, I thought the easiest escape from such correspondence was to go again into the general question of the Act, and put the matter before you in such a shape that it would be almost impossible for you to misunderstand the wishes of the Government. 8. It was not through reading your letter hastily that I came to the conclusion, " that, following the not very novel device of raising a fictitious case," you wished to image the position I should have been in, had I adopted the course you supposititiously attributed to yourself. I saw no other reason for giving the rein to your imagination, in your effort to conjecture what a Court of Law would have thought of you, had you adopted a certain course. I am glad to accept your explanation that you did not mean the sentence to apply to me; but you must permit me to say that, if you adopt imagery of this nature, you must not be surprised at its being misunderstood. 9. I hope you will not deem it necessary to renew this correspondence. I have, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand. Julius Vogel.

No. 13. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Colonial Secbetaey. (No. 357.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, "Westminster, S.W., Sib,— 29th May, 1875. In continuation of my letter of the 13th instant, No. 284,1 have the honor to enclose, for the information of the Government, a copy of a despatch which I have this day received from the Hon. the Premier in reply to my letter of the date and number above specified, on the subject of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the ship " Scimitar," and of my repeated and most earnest disclaimer that my letter on that topic of the 10th January, No. 5, was of " an intolerably disrespectful nature." Ido not think there is anything in the Hon. the Premier's present despatch that calls for further remark upon my part. I have, &c, I. E. FeaThebston, The Hon. the (Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Agent-General.

Enclosure in No. 13. The Hon. Sir J. Vogel to the Agent-Genebal. 7, "Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sib,— 28th May, 1875. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 12th May, in reply to mine of 4th May. 2. I do not think that disrespectful memoranda made by the Agent-General on letters addressed to him by Ministers are to be justified by the necessity, which Ministers sometimes find themselves under, of noting their opinions upon documents. Notwithstanding the extraordinary insinuations you throw out, I have no doubt whatever as to my right to require to see public documents, and to remark upon them, and upon any notes which officers in the public service may attach to them. 3. You complain of my correspondence, and of the letters which you have found it necessary to write " during the last year." Ido not think your letters during the past year were more objectionable than some previous ones. You must recollect that before last year the Government very much objected to the tone of your correspondence. I need only remind you of the Colonial Secretary's letter to you No. 101, of 27th August, 1873.