A.—7

2

No. 3. His Excellency the Governor to His Honor the Superintendent of Otago. (Telegram.) Wellington, 3rd October, 1876. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your telegram of yesterday's date, and also a further telegram requesting permission to publish it. I submitted the former for the consideration of my Government, and I beg to send you copy of a memorandum which I have received from them. You are at liberty to publish your telegram to me, together with this reply now sent. Normanby. His Honor the Superintendent, Otago.

Enclosure to No. 3. Memorandum for His Excellency. Ministers have the honor to return the telegram addressed to your Excellency on the 2nd instant by the Superintendent of Otago, and submitted by you for their perusal. Mr. Macandrew prays that your Excellency will withhold the Queen's assent from any action of the Colonial Parliament having for its object the giving effect to the Abolition Bill in as far as Otago is concerned. He appears to forget that the Abolition Act is now law, has been left to its operation by Her Majesty, and will come into force without further legislative action. Mr. Macandrew says he is advised that the action taken by the General Assembly, and assented to by Her Majesty, to amend the Constitution, is ultra vires. It is open for him, if he can, to convince the Courts of law that the advice he relies on is sounder than that of the Law Officers of the Crown in London and in New Zealand. His Honor assures your Excellency that your Responsible Advisers are altogether misinformed or have no correct conception as to the deep and earnest feeling which pervades the Province of Otago on the subject—a feeling which is becoming moro intense the more the effects of the Abolition Bill come to be realized. Ministers are fully aware of, and deeply regret, the strong feeling against Abolition apparently held by a portion of the inhabitants of Otago, fomented as it has been by misrepresentations and agitation for which the Superintendent himself is in a great measure responsible. They are also aware of a strong feeling in favour of Abolition among another section of the Otago people; and they know that neither party has yet had an opportunity of judging practically of the effects of legislation which has not yet been put in force. It is contrary to every principle of representative and parliamentary government to allow the temporary effect of local agitation to outweigh the deliberate decision of the people in Parliament assembled. Tour Excellency's Advisers therefore deeply regret that a Superintendent of an important province should venture to tell your Excellency that the action of your Advisers must, if persisted in, result in a dismemberment of the colony. That action is the result of the determination of two Parliaments, the present one having been elected to carry out the decision of the last. The Superintendent concludes by stating that from all quarters the Provincial Government is being urgently appealed to to obtain a plebiseitum of the people, with a view to an appeal to the Imperial Government. Ministers need scarcely remark that & plebiseitum is a mode of expressing popular opinion unknown to any Constitution based upon representative institutions; and that even if a vote of a majority of one province were to be obtained against any Act of the Legislature, such, a vote could not be allowed for a moment to have weight against the decision of the representatives of the whole of the colony. Tour Excellency's Advisers are also receiving urgent appeals from Otago, especially from the outlying districts, in a directly contrary sense to those relied on by the Superintendent, and they are satisfied that their endeavour to secure local self-government for all the districts in the country is welcomed by a large proportion of the Province of Otago, as it is by the Colony of New Zealand. The measure now under consideration of Parliament for the establishment of counties will leave the whole question of the division of the country for the purposes of local government ultimately in the hands of the people ; and Ministers have no reason to believe that the people of Otago are less desirous than those of other parts of New Zealand to localize the administration of their local affairs. Wellington, 3rd October, 1876. H. A. Atkinson.

No. 4. His Honor the Superintendent of Otago to His Excellency the Governor. (Telegram.) My Lord, — Dunedin, 4th October, 1876. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, late yesterday, of your telegram in reply to mine of the previous day. I now venture to express my deep regret that your Excellency's Government seem to be so completely under a cloud both as to the practical effect upon Otago of Abolition, and as to the feelings of the people thereupon. I admit that there is a very small minority in favour of Abolition, inasmuch as the interests of many of them are