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but the benefits of the Colonial Stocks Act do not stop there. It has been the means of materially raising all colonial stocks. All the Australasian Colonies now use it. I believe lam within the mark in saying that some fifty millions have been brought within its operations during the short time it has been in existence, and with its aid operations take place of a magnitude which without it would be impossible. I doubt if any instance can be found of an equally successful general measure. Now, in the controversy with Sir John Hall, I raised the question if I was not to receive commission on the negotiation of the loan lat least ought to receive it on the conversion. The Loan Agents put in a claim to double commission, but afterwards withdrew it on the representation of Sir F. D. Bell, who contended that the inscription involved no additional labour. There was a great deal of force in what Sir F. D. Bell wrote, though he did not take quite all the circumstances into consideration. No colonial stock had been inscribed before under the Colonial Stocks Act. We undertook as Loan Agents to allow the Five-Million Loan within one year to be inscribed, and we subsequently had to make provision for the inscription. This was done by the deed-poll, which required a great deal of consideration. Still Sir F. D. Bell is substantially correct in saying that the machinery for effecting conversion was not of a nature to call for payment. His contention amounts to this : that the real services of the inscribed Stock Agents is in devising, subject to the Government's approval, the mode, place, and time of conversion, and that the actual clerical or other work is provided for. It is fair, however, to the Agents to say that, when they asked for a second commission upon all stock converted after the Ist May, they had in consideration that other conversion operations of their devising would be proceeding, and that it would be difficult, to draw the line between the different operations. They wrote under date 16th June, 1880 : — " After the Ist May the conversion might proceed more or less vigorously, and at any time other loans besides the Five Million might be introduced. To have placed on different footings conversion after the Ist May would, we thought, entail inconvenience and confusion, and the amount at stake was a mere bagatelle compared with the vast amount to which it related. Payments made for financial operations are not regulated by the time they occupy or the physical labour they entail. They depend rather on the influence, judgment, experience, and knowledge which are required to bring them to a successful issue." However, on Sir F. D. Bell's representation the Agents abandoned the claim to a dual commission, and I only ask for one, be it on the Five-Million as negotiated or as converted; and, as I have said, a great deal of the conversion took place after I ceased to be Agent-General, and whilst I was still Stock Agent. I now come to my claim for deprivation of office as Agent under " The New Zealand Consolidated Loan Act, 1877." On the 17th day of April, 1879, I was appointed an additional Agent under the Act as long as I continued Agent-General. On the 31st January, 1880, a fresh appointment was made without the proviso of my continuing Agent-General; and, as to this appointment, 'Sir John Hall wrote me, in a letter marked private, (but which, after consulting numerous friends, it is considered I am at liberty, under the circumstances, to use) the following extract, under date the 26th February, 1880, that is to say, the month following the appointment:— By the present post you will receive answers to the official letters respecting the floating of the loan and the proposed inscription of stock. So far as they affect yourself, I am afraid they will disappoint you ; but, with a full appreciation of your services, and with every wish to do you justice, we have not found it possible to accede to that for which you believe you have a fair claim. The argument tli at on all former occasions the services rendered by the Agent-General when acting as Loan Agent have been considered to be included in the duties of his office appears to us insurmountable. We are not unmindful of the value of the arrangements which you effected with the Bank of England in 1875, nor of the services which, as Agent-General, you have rendered to New Zealand ; but, on the other hand, it is sure to be said that those services have been followed by your appointment as one of the Agents for the inscription of stock—an appointment which will, with the exercise of little labour, return, in all probability, a considerable income, and assist materially your position in London, whilst leaving you free to engage in any other business. From this point of view it is sure to Be argued that this is not an unreasonable recognition of your services. I should like to point out here that this letter of Sir John Hall's was dated two days before ■the letter of Mr. Fox, in which he told mo semi-officially that the Government, although they did not think the House would grant the honorarium, would.be glad to support it. I was given to understand, after Sir F. D. Bell's arrival Home, that the powers conferred by the Governor in Council under the instrument of appointment were too extensive; but he conferred with me, in common with the other Agents, as to the remuneration the Agents should receive under a new appointment. On the 17th June, 1881, the appointment was revoked, as I understood, solely on the ground that less extensive powers should be given in future. On the sth November fresh appointments were made of Sir F. D. Bell and Sir Penrose Julyan, with the same powers as before, but I was not included. I submit I have received a cruel wrong by this cancellation of my appointment and failure to reappoint me. ■ If you consider the letter Sir J. Hall wrote me, and what he says of the position in London which the appointment carried with it, you will, I think, be able to see that a money payment alone would not be sufficient to compensate me. The cancelment of my appointment and failure to reappoint me was a marked slur in the eyes of every one who knew what an important part I had taken in procuring the passage of the Colonial Stocks Bill, anirAn making the arrangements with the Bank of England,. It was an insult to me in the face of the world. The .sas^e of wrong and the suffering occasioned to me by the.feeling that the colony, to serve, which I had passed the best years of my life, could put on me such an unmerited slight defies'description. At probably the nearly approaching close of a life which has been passed much more in endeavours to serve others than in attempts to serve myself, I ask the Parliament of New .Zealand to say if I have deserved the treatment I received in my deprivation of this office.