request, as many of his friends here are anxious about it. Tell McLean there is a young man called Howard de Walden, son of Lord Howard, who is in Queensland and has applied for a Commission. He was in the Rifles here and has lost his money. At Sir William Hutt's the other evening he introduced Lady Walden whom I promised I would write mentioing her son's name. We are being very much hounded for not having powers to treatabout Immigration --- if we had, many who wont give time to considering anything without a practical issue, would help us. I find this meeting me in all societies. I was at was at a City Banquet the other day where there were heaps of rich men M.P.'s. The sort of thing they all said was that the troops question is done for and that if we want any help from them, they being very busy making money and so forth, we must ask for it in some shape where we have power to say yes or no to a definite proposal. Every one's time is so precious --- the railway rate at which everyone and everything moves is so great --- that men will absolutely not give an hour to a mere abstract advantage or scheme. They require to know whether you have power to treat, and if they are answered No, they turn instantly to some other scheme which they can get settled on the nail. If we are to have anything successful about Immigration the Assembly must give somebody power to act here; and so if the Session is soon coming you must look at this just as much as at getting a scheme of emigration at all. No scheme has a chance unless you authorise either us or somebody else to treat with full powers within certain limits. If you send any powers home about Immigration, do the same about Telegraphs etc. There are several propositions afloat about extending telegraph communication to Australia and New Zealand, and heaps of questions have been put to us as to what we would do in such and such a case of offer. We can only refer back to the Colony, which stops everything and makes these busy folk shrug