A.—B

4

6. For the protection of the interest of the State in the prosperity of the Company, the Chancellor' reserves to himself the right of confirming the appointments of members of the Board of Directors. He also appoints a representative, who has to mediate all business between the State and the Company, and must be admitted to all the transactions of the Board of Directors and general meetings. This representative (or, in case of enforced absence, his representative) has the right to look into, either personally or by deputy, all books, accounts, and other documents, at all places, particularly in branch 'establishments and factories, and also to demand from the managers of the Company written explanations about the position and working of the enterprise. He has the right of calling a meeting of the Board of Directors, a general meeting, and to oppose any measure of the Board of Directors or the general meeting which he may think prejudices the interest of the State, or other general interests. The execution of any such measure must be delayed till the decision of the Chancellor, with whom it rests. 7. As soon as the guarantee (Article 4) of the State expires and the Company has paid back all advances out of the guarantee, the clauses about the relations of the State to the Company cease to exist. After what has been brought to my notice, I may assume that a consortion of respectable bankhouses, headed by the Prussian See Handlung, will undertake the forming of the Company in the national interest, and on the basis of the accompanying statute plan, as has been often done at the issue of Imperial and State loans. I beg your Highly-well-born to inform the Minister of Finance, by official communication, of the contents of this Proclamation, under what conditions I am prepared to ask the assistance of the State, and to ask His Excellency whether the lloyal See Handlung would be prepared to afford its co-opera-tion for the realization of this project. As soon as the constitution of the Company is ensured I must beg your Highly-well-born to prepare the necessary proposal to the Bundesrath [Federal Council] to undertake the proposed guarantee on the part of the State. Tour Highly-well-born knows the interest the State takes in the prosperity of German enterprise in the South Sea. I can refer in this respect to the memorial in which I laid the treaty of 24th January last year with the Samoa Islands before the Bundesrath and the lleichstag during the last session. In consequence of a well-known Hamburg firm, for reasons which did not commence in their South Sea business, having got into difficulties which threatened the German South Sea trade with the loss of what forms its centre, the factories and plantations on the Samoa Islands, and the hope that those interested would succeed with their own means in averting, in the national interest, this lamentable calamity, I believed myself, in the interest of our transatlantic commerce, to be justified in asking His Majesty the Emperor to grant me the permission to propose to the legislative bodies to grant the endangered enterprise the necessary means of existence. I did so all the more readily, as lately recognized financial authorities, after examining the actual circumstances, have declared that if they are supported b}' the State they would undertake the forming of a company with the primary object of securing the mentioned lands and factories. The statute which has resulted from the various negotiations, and is here appended, offers to the smaller capitalist the possibility of participation, and, by doing so, expressing the national interest in the result. The conditions regulating the relations between the State and the Company, which have been framed with the assistance of the Imperial Exchequer Office, give a guarantee of not only his but also the interests of the public. Having received the Imperial sanction, I shall introduce a proposal to the Bundesrath which, under the above-mentioned conditions, grants a financial assistance by the State to the (on the basis of the accompanying Statute) about-to-be-formed Company. Yon Bismarck. To Highly-well-born the Imperial Under-Secretary of State, W. Scholz, Berlin.

The A gent- General to the Premier. (Received Ist May, 1880.) •German Parliament rejected Guarantee Bill, Samoan Company. Vogel, London, 30th April, 1880.

By Authority : Geobge Didsbttry, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBBo. Price 3d.]