A.—3b

1881. NEW ZEALAND.

INTERCOLONIAL CONFERENCE HELD AT SYDNEY (DESPATCHES FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES RESPECTING PROCEEDINGS OF THE).

Presented to loth Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. The Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency the Governor. (No. 12.) Sir, — Downing Street, 11th May, 1881. I have received from the Governor of New South Wales a report of the proceedings of the Intercolonial Conference held at Sydney. I have perused this report with much interest, and I hope that the deliberations of the Conference may eventually result in the adoption by the Legislatures of the Australasian Colonies of several measures conducing to the general benefit of the whole group. Some of the questions considered by the Conference require separate and special notice, and I shall address to you further despatches dealing severally with those points which appear to call for my observations. I have addressed a similar despatch to the Governors of the other colonies represented at the Conference. I have, &c, Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, G.C.M.G. Kimberley.

No. 2. The Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency the Governor. (No. 13.1 Sir,— Downing Street, 11th May, 1881. I have had under my consideration the resolutions agreed to by the Intercolonial Conference held at Sydney in January last with reference to the relations of British subjects with the natives of the Western Pacific Islands, and to the office and functions of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. Her Majesty's Government highly appreciate the ability and earnestness with which Sir A. Gordon has discharged the responsible duties devolving on him as the first High Commissioner. They are nevertheless sensible of the importance of the points raised in the resolutions, as to several of which I have for some time past been conferring with the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and the views of the Conference will receive full and careful consideration. I have, &c, Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, G.C.M.G. Kimberley.

No. 3. The Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency the Governor. (No. 14.) Sir, — Downing Street, 11th May, 1881. I have had before me the representation of the Intercolonial Conference held at Sydney in January last, on the subject of the introduction of Chinese immigrants by the Government of Western Australia at the public expense. I am well aware of the strong objections which are entertained generally in the Australian Colonies to an extensive Chinese immigration; but in the peculiar case of Western Australia, which comprises an enormous tract of country, more than a third of which lies within the tropics, strong evidence of injury already sustained, or likely to be sustained, by the neighbouring