4

A.—3c

Enclosure. To Heb Most Geacious Majesty the Queen. May it please youe Majesty,— We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the members of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, humbly pray that your Majesty may be pleased forthwith to take such effectual measures as will prevent the Island of New Guinea, or any of the Islands of the South Pacific lying between New Guinea and Fiji (including the New Hebrides, New Ireland, and New Britain), from being taken possession of by any Foreign Power, either for the formation of a penal settlement, or for purposes of colonization. Thos. D. Chapman, President of the Legislative Council. Heney Butlee, Speaker of the House of Assembly.

No. 7. Governor Sir W. F. D. Jeevois, G.C.M.G. C.B. to the Eight Hon. the Earl of Deeby. My Lobd, — Government House, Wellington, September 8, 1883. I have the honour to transmit herewith copies of " The Confederation and Annexation Act, 1883," which has been passed by both Houses of the New Zealand Legislature. 2. Although, as your Lordship will observe, the powers conferred by the Act are of a very limited character, the duty of the Commissioners for whose appointment it provides being merely to report to the New Zealand Legislature, and no action can be taken on their recommendations without the consent of Her Majesty, yet, as bearing on a matter of Imperial policy, I have decided, in accordance with the recommendation of my Ministers, to reserve the Bill for the Eoyal assent. I have, &c. The Eight Hon. the Earl of Derby. Wm, F. Dbummond Jeevois.

No. 8. The Agent-Genebal for Victoria to the Colonial Office. My LoBDj-— 8, Victoria Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. October 5, 1883. I have the honour to inform you that I have received, by the last mail, a despatch from, the Hon. the Premier of Victoria, and that, since its arrival, I have received a further telegraphic despatch from Mr. Service, very strongly urging me to impress upon your Lordship the sense of Her Majesty's Colonial Ministers, that it is eminently to be desired, in view of the Convention of the Australasian Governments which will assemble at Sydney next month, that a clear understanding with Her Majesty's Imperial Government should be attained in respect to the conditions on which the Confederation of the colonies, as advised by your Lordship, should proceed, and also the method in which the necessary measures of protectorate or Annexation in the Western Pacific should be approached. I am, accordingly, to invite your Lordship to state, for the information of my Government, on what general conditions Her Majesty's Imperial Government will be prepared to give their assent to the Annexation of the Western Pacific Islands which have been sufficiently indicated in previous correspondence. I am further to request your Lordship, having reference to your observation to the deputation of the Agents-General, last June, that the Annexation should be preceded by a Federation of the Colonies, to state whether, if the colonies do become federally united, the Imperial sanction to the Annexation will then be granted, or whether it will be granted on the colonies simply agreeing to provide for the expense of the proceeding. In the telegraphic despatch to which I have above referred, received only this morning, I am further instructed to ask your Lordship whether an estimate can be prepared at the Colonial Office, in anticipation of the meeting of the Convention, of the cost of those measures, or, it may be, at least, of such as are indicated in the latter paragraphs of your despatch to the Officer Administering the Government of Queensland, of the 11th of July last. The brief period which now remains before the assembly of the Convention, and the momentous decisions at which it is called upon to arrive, both in regard to the political constitution proper for the Australasian Dominion, and the extension of territory necessary to provide for it adequate and secure boundaries, will, I hope, justify me in requesting your immediate and earnest attention to the questions which I am instructed by my Government to submit to your Lordship. I have, &c. The Eight Hon. the Earl of Derby. Eobekt Muebay Smith,

See A.-3, No. 21, p. 89.

No. 9. The Colonial Office to the Agent-Geneeal for Victobia. Sib,— . Downing Street, October 22, 1883. I am directed by the Earl of Derby to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the sth instant, in which, at the request of the Government of Victoria, His Lordship is invited to state, more fully, the views of Her Majesty's Government on certain questions connected with the subject of the proposed Annexation of various Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean.