4

A.—2

No. 7. (No. 51.) Sic,— Downing Street, 21th November, 1881. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 57, of the 13th of September, reporting your temporary assumption of the Government of New Zealand on the departure of Sir Arthur Gordon for Fiji. I have, &c, Acting-Governor Prendergast, KIMBERLEY. &c, &c, &c.

No. 8. (No. 52.) Sir, — Downing Street, 24th November, 1881. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the despatch of the Officer Administering the Government, No. 58, of the 24th of September, reporting the prorogation by Commission on that day of the Third and last Session of the Seventh Parliament of New Zealand. I have, &c, Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, G.C.M.G., KIMBERLEY. &c, &c, &c.

' ' ' No. 9. (No. 53.) Sir,— Downing Street, 29th November, 1881. I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of your Government, a copy of a letter with its enclosures from the Treasury on the subject of an application from the Chairman of the Joint Library Committee of the General Assembly of New Zealand, requesting that copies of certain Acts might be presented to the Colonial Government. The Lord Clerk Register has been requested to forward the volumes of Acts of the Scottish Parliament, which the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury have consented to present to the Government of New Zealand, to the care of the AgentGeneral for transmission to the colony. I have, &c, Governor the Hon. Sir A. 11. Gordon, G.0.M.G., KIMBERLEY. &c, &c, &c. Enclosure 1 in No. 9.

Reply-A.-l, No. 11.

The Treasury to the Colonial Office. Sir, — Treasury Chambers, 17th November, 1881. I am directed by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to transmit to you herewith copies of a letter from the Master of the Eolls and of a letter from the Chairman of the Joint Library Committee of the General Assembly of Now Zealand, and I am to request that, in laying the same before the Earl of Kimberley, you will inform him that my Lords have authorized the Lord Clerk Begister, Edinburgh, to have a set of Acts of Parliament of Scotland, in thirteen volumes folio, bound, for the purpose of presentation to the New Zealand Government. I am to request that you will cause this decision to be communicated to the New Zealand Government, and that you will cause directions to be sent to the Lord Clerk Begister as to the address to which the books should be forwarded. It will be seen from the letter of the Master of the Bolls that the Acts of the Long Parliament during the Protectorate of Cromwell are not a Government publication. As the stock of the Statutes of Scotland is running very low, my Lords can comply with no further application of the same kind. I have, &c, B. G. W. Herbert, Esq., Colonial Office. B. B. W. Lisoeit.

Enclosure 2 in No. 9. The Becobd Office to the Treasury. Sir,— Public Eecord Office, 27th September, 1881. Pursuant to the Treasury letter of the 2Sth October, 1876, I transmit herewith, on behalf of the Master of the Bolls, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's-Treasury, a letter from the Chairman of the Library of the General Assembly of New Zealand,