19

D.—3

Enclosure 2 in No. 25. The Agent-General to Mr. G. V. Stewaet. Sir, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 7th January, 1878. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd instant. In compliance with your request I will write to the Government by first mail asking them if they will carry out the pledge you state you received from the late Minister for Immigration to give free passages to female emigrants from Belfast to fill up your ship, and asking for a reply by cable. If it is important to your arrangements I will cable out on the subject, oji the condition that you defray the cost of the cablegram, unless the answer is favourable, in which case I will return the cost to you. As you refer to a claim on the Government, I feel compelled to state that I do not consider that your view of the circumstances is accurate. Briefly, what has taken place is this: Tou came home to England with a draft unsigned agreement, which you had reason to think would be approved by the Governor, but of which there was nothing in the nature of absolute proof. Tou pressed me not only to accept it as binding, but to give you letters to the Local Agents, which if the agreement had been signed I should not have considered myself justified in doing. Respecting the certificates, the correspondence speaks for itself. I do not think you complied with my suggestions, and, as I informed you, they were only suggestions, in the absence of the agreement. I think, as I have said, the delay in forwarding the agreement is much to be regretted, but not because of any loss you have sustained. My reason for regretting the delay is that it has occasioned me a very troublesome correspondence, one in which you will permit me to say you have not shown yourself unmindful of the difficulty in which I was placed. But assuming that the agreement is without alteration from the draft published by you, I do not see that you have sustained any loss. I certainly should not have granted certificates under it until the money was paid, and it has only been paid sixteen days since. Even in regard to those certificates you have sent in, you cannot have sustained any loss, since you are acting on the assumption that the Government will recognize them, and it is quite likely, under the circumstances, that they will do so. lii respect to your being detained here, as I have said, you only paid the money sixteen days since, and it was not due until the Ist January. It is a matter for your own consideration whether to remain here or to appoint a representative. As you say a letter by post can be answered by cable before you despatch your ship, it is clear you do not contemplate despatching it at once. In any way that the subject may be regarded, I am unable to see that you have either cause of complaint or claim against the Government. I have, &c., Julius Vogel, G. Vesey Stewart, Esq. Agent-General.

Enclosure 3 in No. 25. Mr. G. V. Stewart to the Agent-Geneeal. Sic, — Martray House, Ballygawley, 14th January, 1878. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 7th instant. Ido not think I should be called upon to defray the expenses of the cablegram to which you allude, as the matter would of course be referred to the late Minister for Immigration, and a gentleman who has failed to carry out two distinct promises and pledges made to me might forget that he ever made them. I regret you do not consider that I have a claim on the Government for detention: however, that is a matter of opinion, but I am in a position to prove, by a gentleman negotiating some arrangements relative to a ship, that my loss will fully amount to £1,000. When I first returned to this country I could not obtain from you for a considerable time a definite reply whether you would even approve or disapprove of my emigrants. Then, after a long correspondence and personal interviews in London you gave me a memorandum showing what information you required. When this was supplied you send me a schedule to be signed by the emigrants, some of whom (who have paid me deposits on their land) having already proceeded to Katikati. Now, with regard to the agreement, it is not my fault that the Minister for Immigration has ere this failed to forward you a copy thereof. I have on my part performed every act under which I was bound. I sent you an official letter from the Chairman of the Waste Lands Board. I referred you to the public prints and to my own pamphlet giving a copy of such agreement. I therefore submit that you were bound either to act upon this evidence, or else regard me as a man utterly void of all principle, and at once repudiate all connection with this emigration movement. Tou complain about the troublesome correspondence that you have suffered at my hands, but with all due respect to your opinions I think you have no person to blame but yourself. I consider that I have much reason to complain of the position which you as Agent-General have taken in the matter. I am quite aware that it is entirely a matter for my own consideration whether to remain in this country or appoint a representative as you suggest; but as an honorable man, and in justice to the parties who have paid me their money, I consider I would be guilty of most reprehensible conduct if I did not wait for those official instructions which you expect to receive from the colony. It is therefore my intention to remain at my post till everything is satisfactorily arranged, and meanwhile I will endeavour to utilize my time in the interests of New Zealand by collecting a further supply of passengers who will pay their own passages to the colony and accompany our party in the special ship. I should therefore feel obliged by your forwarding me a list of your Scotch, English, and Irish Agents, and sending me a form of circular such as I can have printed at my own expense, to the effect that you have been informed by me that I intend to despatch such special ship,