A.—7

1886. NEW ZEALAND.

INTERVIEWS OF AGENTS-GENERAL WITH COLONEL STANLEY ON HIS RETIREMENT, AND EARL GRANVILLE ON HIS ACCEPTANCE OF OFFICE AS SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.

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

The Agent-Geneeal to the Peemiee. Sic, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 11th February, 1886. In accordance with the precedent which has been observed on former occasions, the High Commissioner of Canada and the Australasian Agents-General waited upon Colonel Stanley to take leave of him on his retirement, and afterwards upon Earl Granville to offer their co-operation to his Lordship on his accession to office. I transmit herewith a report of the meeting with Lord Granville. I have, &c, The Hon. the Premier, Wellington. F. D. Bell.

Enclosure. [Extract from the Times, Thursday, 11th February, 1886.] Lokd Geanville and the Colonies. Sic Chaeles Tuppbe, the High Commissioner for Canada, Sir Saul Samuel, Sir Arthur Blyth, Sir Francis Dillon Bell, Mr. Murray Smith, Mr. F. C. Garrick, and Sir Charles Mills, the AgentsGeneral for New South Wales, South Australia, New Zealand, Victoria, Queensland, and the Cape of Good Hope respectively, waited upon Lord Granville by appointment at the Colonial Office, on Tuesday, at four o'clock, and were duly presented to his Lordship and the Eight Hon. G. Osborne Morgan, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Sir B. G. W. Herbert, Sir Chakles Tuppeb said, —Lord Granville —My colleagues, representing the colonies of Australasia and the Cape of Good Hope, and myself are greatly obliged by this early opportunity of tendering our respectful congratulations upon your acceptance of the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies. We are much gratified by the fact that a statesman of such great influence and long official experience has been selected to preside over the interests of the important colonies we represent. We do not forget the measures of great importance, especially to Canada, that were concluded under your Lordship's administration when you held office in 1868-70. It is, no doubt, as gratifying to your Lordship as it is to ourselves to know that all these colonies have made great advances since that time. Not only has there been a great increase in their populations, an enormous addition to the volume of their trade, but the most remarkable development in the means of communication by the extension of their railways. The time has now arrived when the people of this country fully recognize the great value of the colonies, not only from the great and steadilyincreasing trade between them and the Mother-country, but also from the evidences that have been afforded that they are no longer to be regarded as a source of weakness, but of strength, to the Mother-country. We need not tell your Lordship that at no other time in the history of the colonies have there existed more unswerving devotion to the Crown and determination to maintain British institutions than at the present. They are glad to know that they have reached a position in which they may be relied upon to give substantial aid in the maintenance of British interests. It is but right that we should say that we have on all occasions received from your distinguished predecessors, Colonel Stanley and Lord Derby, the most kind consideration and hearty co-operation in all the questions it has been our duty to submit for their consideration ; and we have no doubt we can rely with the same confidence upon your Lordship to aid us in promoting, as far as is possible, the best interests of the colonies we have the honour to represent. My colleagues from Australia will, no doubt, seek your assistance in protecting their interests in the islands of the Pacific; and I may remind your Lordship that Canada, by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Eailway, has recently assumed greater importance as a Pacific as well as an Atlantic dominion, and that she feels as deep an interest in the position of those islands of the Pacific as those colonies of Australia which my colleagues especially represent. As this is the first official interview I have had the honour to have with your Lordship, it is only right that I should express my thanks, on behalf of Canada, for your action as Foreign Minister in appointing me to represent the Dominion at the International Cables Conference at Paris, where you were good enough to place me, as the representative of Canada, in the same position as that occupied by the representa-