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ters, they should be the six men from among their supporters best calculated to strengthen the weakened Upper Chamber, and that as soon as Ministers could decide on the names (a process which appears to have been a lengthy one) they were to be formally submitted to me. 12. I should be wanting in candour were I to lead your Lordship to suppose that either the majority of the House of Representatives, the whole of the party which supported the late Government, or all the Legislative Councillors approve the conduct of the late Ministry in tendering me this advice. 13. I do not think it is seriously maintained, in the face of the constant practice in England for defeated Ministries to advise Her Majesty to create peers, that there has been anything unconstitutional in my action, but, so far as I can gather, there is a strong feeling that in the colony the practice which obtains in England of making Ministerial appointments before vacating office is not one which New Zealand Ministers should be encouraged to follow. 14. If I have interpreted that feeling aright public opinion will be strong enough to prevent its recurrence. 15. In colonies possessed of such democratic institutions as manhood suffrage and triennial Parliaments, in addition to a numerous and universally read press, public opinion is not slow to assert itself, or to execute summary punishment on the Ministry or party which has acted contrary to its wishes. 16. The unexpected support which the new Ministry have received in the recent short session of Parliament, and the discontent of many of the supporters of the late Government, is a sufficient intimation to the leaders of the party lately in power of the state of public opinion on this matter, and ought to prevent any serious evil to the colony arising out of the event, considered in the light of a precedent; while at the same time the resignation of Ministers because their advice had not been accepted, a step which, in my opinion, only the most imperative necessity can justify, has been avoided. 17. I need hardly add that any expression of opinion from your Lordship will greatly aid me in the course which I should adopt in future, and will be valued in the colony as an indication of the attitude which Her Majesty's Government desires the representative of the Queen to assume towards his Advisers, and towards the people of these large and growing communities who are in full possession of the powers of self-government, and perfectly able to control and direct those to whom they intrust the government. I have, &c, ONSLOW. The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, &c.

No. 7. (No. 11.) My Lobd, — Wellington, New Zealand, 4th February, 1891. I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I have this day signed the documents necessary for effecting the following changes in the Ministry:— 1. An exchange of portfolios, the Hon. J. Ballance (formerly Native Minister) and the Hon. A. T. Cadman (formerly Commissioner of Stamp Duties). 2. A transference of the portfolios of Postmaster-General and Electric Telegraph Commissioner from the Hon. P. A. Buckley to the Hon. J. G. Ward, who, however, will receive no remuneration for the performance of the duties of those offices. I have, &c, ONSLOW. The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, &c.

No. 8. (No. 12.) My Lobd, — Wellington, New Zealand, 7th February, 1891. I have the honour to report that on the 21st of October, 1890,-sentence of death was passed upon one Mahi Kai, a Maori convicted of the murder on the 12th of April, 1890, of one Stephen Maloney.