45

A.—2

mitting, with a recommendation from your Government, a petition addressed to the Queen by the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Council of the University of Otago, praying for a grant of Letters Patent providing for the recognition of the degrees of the University in the same manner as if they had been granted by any University of the United Kingdom. 2. I have also received your despatch of the 20th of May, No. 21, enclosing a petition to the Queen from the Governors of Canterbury College, praying Her Majesty not to grant a charter to any educational body in New Zealand other than the New Zealand University; together with a copy of the resolutions adopted by the Senate of the University of New Zealand, expressing the opinion that it is undesirable that the power to confer University degrees should be possessed by more than one institution in the colony ; and a printed Address by the AttorneyGeneral, containing information on the subject of the relations between the New Zealand and Otago Universities. 3. I request that you will inform the Chancellor of the Otago University and the Governors of Canterbury College that their petitions have been laid before the Queen ; but that, having regard to the objections pointed out in Lord Kimberley's despatch of the 31st of January, 1873, No. 8, to the grant of a charter to more than one University in New Zealand, and not being able to find anything in the present circumstances which would justify me in departing from the decision then arrived at, or in recommending the establishment of more than one chartered University in any Australasian colony, I have not thought it my duty to advise Her Majesty to authorize any steps towards granting Letters Patent to the University of Otago. I have, &c, M. E. HICKS BEACH. Governor Sir Hercules E,obinson, G.C.M.G., &c.

No. 59. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach to Governor Sir Hercules Eobinson. (No. 38.) Sir,— Downing Street, 31st July, 1879. I have the honor to transmit to you for communication to your Government the accompanying copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's Consul in New Caledonia, stating that vessels sailing from that port, as well as from Sydney and from Queensland, to the New Hebrides, carry with them large quantities of dynamite for trading purposes, and with the object of procuring fish. I think it right to communicate these papers to you in case your Government should think it desirable that steps should be taken with a view to check so dangerous a practice, if it should equally prevail in the case of any vessels sailing from the ports of the colony under your government. I have, &c., M. E. HICKS BEACH. Governor Sir Hercules Eobinson, G.C.M.G., &c.

Enclosure in No. 59. Mr. Consul Layard to the Marquis of Salisbury. My Lord, — British Consulate, Noumea, 21st April, 1879. I hope I shall not be exceeding my jurisdiction by informing your Lordship that I have certain information that most of the vessels sailing from Sydney, Queensland, and this port to the New Hebrides, carry with them, for the purposes of trading with the natives, and also for procuring fish for themselves, large quantities of dynamite. lam told that on some islands the first thing the natives now ask for is this dangerous explosive. No secret is made of it. 2. I need hardly point out to your Lordship how a small charge of this substance thrown into a boat, or even down the hatch .of a small vessel, would blow out the bottom of the craft, and leave the survivors to the mercy of the crafty and treacherous savage who planned the scheme. E. C. Layard, The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., &c. H.B.M. Consul.