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No. 9. The Hon. the Premier to the Agent-General. (Telegram.) Wellington, 22nd September, 1883. Direct Service.—Assembly resolution was forwarded by last mail; also by "Catalonia." Declines sanction contract. Authorizes arranging meet requirements, giving preference Shipping Company. .... H. A Atkinson. The Agent-General for New Zealand, London.

No. 10. Mr. H. P. Murray-Aynsley to the-Hon. the Minister of Immigration. (Telegram.) Christchurch, 28th September, 1883. When writing by "Doric" next Friday to our London manager we hope to be able to give him full instructions as to Government business. Will you, therefore, before that date, if possible, inform us what determination the Government has come to in this matter. H. P. Murray-Aynsley, The Hon, W. Eolleston, Wellington, Deputy Chairman, N,Z. Shipping Company.

No. 11. The Hon; the Minister of Immigration to H. P. Murray-Aynsley, Esq. (Telegram.) Government Buildings, 28th September, 1883. Government has forwarded resolutions of the Parliamentary Committee to the Agent-General, and instructed him to give effect to those resolutions. Agent-General has already been informed of their purport by cablegram. The instructions will be supplemented in matters of detail by subsequent mails, and the Agent-General will communicate with your London manager as to the course to be taken in pursuance of his instructions. H. P. Murray-Aynsley, Esq., W. Eolleston. Deputy Chairman, N.Z. Shipping Company, Christchurch.

No. 12. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Minister of Immigration. Sir, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 30th September, 1883. In more than one letter since the beginning of this year I have stated my intention of submitting to you the views which had been gradually forming in my mind on the management of our immigration, and on the best way of getting out people of different classes to the colony. Before, however, I could safely place my opinions on official record, it was necessary for me to take plenty of time to bring together the points that had to be considered in our practice and compare them with the practice of other colonies, that is to say, if I was to propose anything that could be called method, to put in the place of the spasmodic make-shifts which had been the rule for so many years. I had taken some pains in the matter, not only because the subject was very interesting in itself, but because the welfare of the colony must long continue to be bound up in the character of its immigration. And I was ready to send you my views when news came to me from private sources that the Government were about to make a contract providing for the transport of all the Government immigrants in steamers and sailing vessels of the New Zealand Shipping Company. As such a contract wouLT certainly affect very materially what I was myself recommending, it became necessary for me to postpone any proposals of my own until I should know what the conditions of the new contract w y ere, and could review my proposals by the light of those conditions. A good deal of time has passed over since then. But I had indulged the hope all along that, whether your proposals were adopted or not, Parliament would, in -any case, come to a decision which should allow of immigration being continued on some really permanent method, and which should enable you, after having considered my recommendations, to send me orders for the initiation of such a method, and for remedying the many defects which the experience of past years had shown to exist. And I thought this all the more certain to happen, because the change from a sailing service to a service partly by steam and partly by sail obviously required the greatest precaution and altogether new provision of an exceptionally difficult kind. That hope has now been dispelled by your cablegram of the 22nd September, 'in which you tell me that Parliament has only permitted temporary arrangements to be made for the requirements of the current year. It would be a waste of time, therefore, to lay before you proposals which depended absolutely upon the element of permanence, and which would be inapplicable in their present shape to any temporary make-shift. Whatever orders you may be sending me shall, of course, be carried out to the best of my ability ; but no harm can come now from putting off a statement of my views until I receive the despatches by the "Catalonia" to which you referred me in the cablegram, and can see how far I can make those views fit in with the decision to which Parliament has come. I have, __~ The Hon. the Minister of Immigration, Wellington. F, D. Bell,