57

A.—2.

No. 71. Copy of a DESEATCH from the Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach to the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. (Circular.) Sir,- — Downing Street, 17th September, 1879. I have the honor to inform you that an arrangement has been arrived at with the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty under which claims on account of the expenditure of coal by Her Majesty's ships will in future be made upon this department only when the persons conveyed have been discharging duties which are strictly colonial. The adoption of this rule has arisen out of a claim advanced against this office, and subsequently withdrawn, for expenditure on account of coals consumed by one of Her Majesty's ships while conveying Sir Arthur Gordon and others on business partly in connection with the Western Bacific High Commission, and partly consular. It is only in few colonies that cases of the kind contemplated are likely to arise, but I have nevertheless considered it desirable to address this circular despatch to all colonial Governments with the view of giving general publicity to the arrangement. In cases where exemption is claimed, it will be necessary that the officer or officers engaged on Imperial service should certify the captain of the vessel that the voyage is not made on service connected with the colonies. I have, &c, M. E. HICKS BEACH. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

No. 72. Copy of a DESEATCH from the Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach to the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. (Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, 19th September, 1879. I have the honor to transmit to you, for information and publication in the colony under your government, a copy of an Order of the Queen in Council of the 14th August last, exempting from re-measurement in this country ships of the Kingdom of Greece the measurement whereof, after the Ist July, 1878, has been ascertained and denoted in the registers and other national papers of such ships. I have, &c, M. E. HICKS BEACH. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

Enclosure in No. 72. At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, the 14th day of August, 1879. Present: The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. Whereas by "The Merchant Shipping Act Amendment Act, 1862," it is enacted that whenever it is made to appear to Her Majesty that the rules concerning the measurement of tonnage of merchant ships for the time being in force under the principal Act have been adopted by tiie Government of any foreign country, and are in force in that country, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Order in Council, to direct that the ships of such foreign country shall be deemed to be of the tonnage denoted in their certificate of registry or other national papers, and thereupon it shall no longer bo necessary for such ships to be re-measured in any port or place in Her Majesty's dominions; but such ships shall be deemed to be of the tonnage denoted in their certificates of registry or other papers, in the same manner, to the same extent, and for the same purposes, in, to, and for which the tonnage denoted in the certificate of registry of British ships is to be deemed the tonnage of such ships : And whereas it has been made to appear to Her Majesty that the rules concerning tlie measurement of tonnage of merchant ships now in force under "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," have been adopted by the Government of His Majesty the King of Greece, with the B—A. 2.