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(No. 59.) Sic,— Government House, Wellington, Bth September, 1898. With reference to your despatch (New Zealand —General), dated the 14th July, 1898, enclosing copies of a report of the delegates to the British Conference of the Union for the Protection of Industrial Property, and also copies of correspondence between the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office, I have the honour to inform you that my Government are willing to accept the additional Act in question. The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, ' RANFURLY. Secretary of State for the Colonies.
No. 19. (No. 66.) Sic, — Government House, Wellington, 29th September, 1898. I have the honour to inform you that Captain Browne, H.M.S. " Tauranga," senior naval officer on this station, has sent me a despatch from Rarotonga, informing me that he read with due ceremony Her Majesty's Proclamation, also my own message introducing the new British Resident, Lieutenant-Colonel Gudgeon. These messages were read in the presence of the Arikis and a very large number of inhabitants, estimated by private individuals at two thousand. Mr. Moss returned on H.M.S. " Tauranga," his family leaving by the ordinary boat, which sailed about the same time. The whole proceedings, so far as I am at present informed, seem to have passed off with complete success, and the new Resident was in every way well received. Lieutenant-Colonel Gudgeon found he was able to carry on a conversation with the Natives without the aid of an interpreter. I nfivp C\C* The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, ' RANBURLY. Secretary of State for the Colonies.
No. 20. (No. 71.) Sic, — Government House, Wellington, 2nd November, 1898. I have the honour to enclose herewith, for the information of the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for India, a copy of a resolution passed by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, regarding the proposal to extend the gold standard to British India. I have, &c, The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, RANFURLY. Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Enclosure. Sib,— Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, Dunedin, 19th September, 1898. I have the honour to inform you that the following resolution was unanimously adopted at a recent meeting of this Chamber, and that I was instructed to forward it to you, with the request that you would have it conveyed to the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for India, viz.: — " That this meeting learns with the gravest apprehension that it is proposed to extend the gold standard to British India. It believes that such a step would be disastrous to the best interests of the Empire. If the proposal were carried out, the number of people looking to gold alone as a standard of value would be nearly doubled, and, as a result, a. further appreciation of gold and a further fall in the price of commodities must take place. This would exercise a deadening and benumbing influence on our trade and commerce, and would materially increase the real burden of our debts. This meeting submits that a change such as contemplated does not merely concern the United Kingdom, or British India; it is a change which would be felt over the whole Empire." I am, &c, The Right Hon. the Premier, Wellington. Petee Babe, Secretary.