A.—2

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Enclosure in No. 10. The Board of Trade to the Colonial Office. Board of Trade (Marine Department), Whitehall Gardens, S.W., 19th September, 1878. S'R, — Seamen Abroad. I am directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge tbe receipt of your letter of 13th instant, forwarding a despatch from the Governor of New Zealand relative to the practice alleged to prevail at certain Australasian ports, of depriving seamen of their certificates of discharge, and charging an additional fee for the issue of a permit. The Board have also considered the despatches forwarded by the Colonial Office from the Governments of New South Wales and Victoria upon the same subject. The practice which appears to be adopted in all these colonies of issuing permits or licenses to ship under certain circumstances does not seem to call for any observations from the Board of Trade. With regard to certificates of discharge, it appears that in New South Wales the law requires that, if the seaman ships or engages, the certificate should remain in the Shipping Office after the man's engagement. The Board of Trade think that such a regulation is open to objection, and they would be glad if Sir Michael Hicks Beach would request the Governor to furnish further information, and to explain the object of the law. I have, &c, The Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office. George J. Swanston.

No. 11. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Eight. Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach to Governor the Most Hon. the Marquis of Normanby. (No. 48.) My Lord,—- Downing Street, 10th October, 1878. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 21, of the 22nd of June last, enclosing a memorandum from Sir George Grey, and also one from the Attorney-General of the colony, with regard to the maintenance of the independence of tbe New Hebrides Islands. As regards the opinion expressed by Sir George Grey that the New Hebrides Islands are already a possession of the British Crown, as indicated by his Commission of Governor of New Zealand, I have to observe that by the Act 26 and 27 Vict., c. 23, passed in 1863, the boundaries of New Zealand are declared to be the 162° cast longitude, the 173° west longitude, and the 33° and 53° south latitude. The New Hebrides, therefore, are no longer within the limits of New Zealand ; and, as this country has for many years exercised no rights or functions of ownership within the group, and moreover as, by the Western Pacific Order in Council of 1877, Her Majesty has given to the natives of those islands protection from the misdeeds of British subjects, and has provided British subjects with Courts of justice having civil and criminal jurisdiction, Her Majesty's Government, as at present advised, have no intention of proceeding further in the direction of a political protectorate. I have, &c, M. E. HICKS BEACH. Governor the Most Hon. the Marquis of Normanby, G.C.M.G, &c.

No. 12. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Eight Hon. Sir Michael Hicks Beach to Governor the Most Hon. the Marquis of Normanby. (No. 49.) My Lord, — Downing Street, 15th October, 1878. I have received, and read with interest, the Pinancial Statement made by the Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand in the House of Eepresentatives on the Oth August last, copies of which you enclosed in your Despatch No. 37, of the Bth of the same month; and I have caused copies of it to be transmitted for the information of the Eords Commissioners of the Treasury and of the Board of Trade. I have, &c, M. E. HICKS BEACH. Governor the Most Hon. the Marquis of Normanby, G.C.M.G, &c.