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At the Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney. Sth DECEMBER, 1883. (Seventh Day.) Present: —- Fiji: His Excellency Sir G. "William Dcs Vcettx, K.C.M.G., Governor of Fiji and 11.8.M.'s Acting High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. New South Wales : TnE Honorable; Alexander Stuart, M.P., Premier and Colonial Secretary. The Honorarle George Eichaed Dibbs, M.P., Colonial Treasurer. Tiie Honorable William Bede Dallet, Q.C., M.L.C., Attorney-General. New Zealand: T.tte Honorable Major Harry Albert Atkinson, M.P., Premier and Colonial Treasurer. The Honorable Frederick Whitaker, M.L.C., late Premier and Attorney-General. Queensland : The Honorable Samuel Walker Griffith, Q.C., M.P., Premier and Colonial Secretary. The Honorable James Francis Garrick, Q.C., M.L.C., Postmaster-General. South Australia : The Honorable John Cox Bray, M.P., Premier and Chief Secretary. The Honorable J. W. Downer, Q. 0., M.P., AttorneyGeneral. Tasmania : The Honorable William Eobert Giblin, M.P., Premier and Attorney-General. The Honorable Nicholas J. Brown, M.P., Minister of Lands and Works. Victoria: The Honorable James Service, M.P., Premier and Colonial Treasurer. The Honorable Graham Berry, M.P., Chief Secretary. The Honorable George Briscoe Kerferd, M.P., Attorney-General. Western Australia : The Honorable Malcolm Fraser, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary. The minutes having been read and verbally amended, the undermentioned papers were laid before the Convention and ordered to be printed : — (1.) From Mr. Andrew Eowan (Castella & Eowan), St. Hubert's Wine Cellars, Melbourne, on the subject of Intercolonial Free Trade in Wine. (2.) From the Honorable Leopold Fane DeSalis, M.L.C., Sydney, on the subject of re-stocking some of the Islands with "fur-seals." (3.) From Mr. John Campbell, Sussex-street, Sydney, on the subject of a "Federal Court of Appeal." The Eesolutions relating to the Islands of the Pacific having been verbally amended were finally adopted as follows : —This Convention representing the Governments of all the British Colonies of Australasia unanimously resolves —■ 1. That further acquisition of dominion in the Pacific, south of the Equator, by any Foreign Power, would be highly detrimental to the safety and well-being of the British possessions in Australasia, and injurious to the interests of the Empire. 2. That this Convention refrains from suggesting the action by which effect can best be given to the foregoing resolution, in the confident belief that the Imperial Government will promptly adopt the wisest and most effectual measures for securing the safety and contentment of this portion of Her Majesty's dominions. 3. That having regard to the geographical position of the Island of New Guinea, the rapid extension of British trade and enterprise in Torres Straits, the certainty that the island will shortly be the resort of many adventurous subjects of Great Britain and other nations, and the absence or inadequacy of any existing laws for regulating their relations with the native tribes, this Convention, while fully recognizing that the responsibility of extending the boundaries of the Empire belongs to the Imperial Government, is emphatically of opinion that such steps should be immediately taken as will most conveniently and effectively secure the incorporation with the British Empire of so much of New Guinea, and the small islands adjacent thereto, as is not claimed by the Government of the Netherlands. 4. That although the understanding arrived at in 1878 between Great Britain and France, recognizing the independence of the New Hebrides, appears to preclude this Convention from making any recommendation inconsistent with that iinderstanding, the Convention urges upon Her Majesty's Government that it is extremely desirable that such understanding should give place to some