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1884. NEW ZEALAND.

EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND. (LETTERS FROM THE AGENT-GENERAL RESPECTING) [In Continuation of D.-4, 1883.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. The Agent-Genebal to the Hon. the Minister of Immigeation. IB > — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, 24th May, 1883 I beg leave to introduce to you Count Bologna Strickland, a member of the Maltese nobility, who is about to visit New Zealand and Australia (see No. 3, D.-4a, 1883), Count Strickland has for some time past been engaged, as a member of the Council of the Government of Malta, in considering the question of emigration of Maltese to some other British dependency. Your memorandum of 20th February last informed me of what you had done when Signor de Cesarc lately visited New Zealand; but it does not seem that the Council of the Government of Malta have heard from him on the subject They are now desirous of renewing their inquiries on the spot, and they have asked Count Strickland to place himself in communication with the Government on his arrival and ascertain whether the Government would still be willing to give any facilities for the emigration of Maltese to New Zealand. I have accordingly desired Count Strickland to wait upon you and lay his views on the subject before the Government. I have, &c.j The Hon the Minister of Immigration, Wellington. JV f>. Bell.

Np. 2. The Agent-Genebal to the Hon. the Ministeb of Immigration; Sib, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 24th September, 1883, I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th August, transmitting & number of documents relating to the renewed disasters which so unfortunately happened during the second voyage of the ship " Oxford." As you have appointed a Commission to investigate the case it would be obviously improper for me to say much until the report of that Commission has been made ; but there are a few points on which I think it necessary to express an opinion at once. It is true that, in my letter of the 6th April, I said that the inquiry I was then making with respect to the original supply of water would not be stayed until the blame for its impurity was placed on the right parties; but what I then forgot was that, with the cleansing of the tanks, the overhaul of the ship under her repairs, and her final departure on her second voyage, must entirely disappear the means of prosecuting my inquiry with any success; and I turned from what would have been a fruitless attempt at remedying the past to the more practical object of preventing, if possible, a recurrence of similar evils in the future. This naturally became part of the far wider investigation into the whole subject of the way our immigration is managed, which has long occupied my thoughts, and which I hoped might lead to a change of system and the establishment of a better and more permanent organization instead. As regards the complaints made of short-shipment of stores and articles of dietary in the " Oxford," I have called the attention of the Despatching Officer to the allegations, and now transmit to you his report, from which you will see that it appears certain that the full quantities of stores of every description required under the shipping contract for 266 adults, 68 children, and 4 infants (equal to 300 statute adults) for a voyage of 140 days, were put on board in and that the quantities used previous to the emigrants landing at Cardiff were duly replenished. As no doubt the Eoyal Commission will inquire into this statement of the Surgeon-Superin-tendent as to the deficiency in the supply of candles and children's stores, and will have the opportunity of examining the officers of the ship who were responsible for their safe custody and proper issue, I shall await the receipt of the report of the Commission before instituting any further inquiries that may be within my power to make on this side. . . .

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