3

A.—s

en consentant a cc sacrifice nous ferions nne grande concession, dans lo but do conserver et de developer les bonnes relations entre l'Australie et nos colonies dv Pacifique. Votre Excellence abien voulu me dire, a la fin de notro entretien, qu'on avait deja telegraphic en Australia pour hater l'envoi dcs reponses attendues; ct nous sommes tombi's d'accord pour reprendre les negociations dcs qu'elles nous seraient connues. Veuillez, &c, M. le Comte de Eosebery. Waddington.

No. 5. The Agent-General to the Pbemiee. Sir,— 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 6th May, 1886. Lord Granville's letter to the Agents-General, covering the French Ambassador's note on the question of the New Hebrides, seemed to mo to take that question so clearly into the phase which I have long felt sure it would assume, that I thought it necessary you should know as soon as possible what had happened ; and I telegraphed to you on the 23rd April that a despatch was going to the Governors of the Australasian Colonies in favour of accepting the Ambassador's proposals. There can bo little doubt that this somewhat sudden advance in the question was owing to the attitude taken by the Government of New South Wales. It had become evident that the Governments of that colony and of Victoria would be as much at issue about the New Hebrides as they had been about the Federal Council, and that Her Majesty's Government might rely upon the support of New South Wales in coming to a settlement with France. But it was important for Lord Eosebery and Lord Granville to know whether they would also receive the support of New Zealand, or whether your Government would throw its weight into the scale of Victoria and the Federal Council. Her Majesty's Government had interpreted Governor Sir W. Jervois's telegram of the 18th March as indicating the probability of your support being given if Eapa were ceded; and, for my own part, following the same general principle which has guided me throughout, I had continued to press upon the Colonial Office, in confidential intercourse, the necessity of embracing in any arrangement not only the cession of Eapa by France, but the annexation of Earotonga by England. Now, in this view it was very important that the Governments of New Zealand and New South Wales should, if possible, be pursuing the same policy, and that their Agents hero should be enabled to work together for objects such as I described in my letter of the 23rd April, No. 529, and I therefore asked whether this could not be done. It was a great satisfaction to mo to receive your message of the 27th April, stating that you were consulting the Presbyterian body, and would try to obtain their assent to such a policy; and I found, on a long conversation with Earl Granville yesterday, how great an interest and importance ho attached to the steps you were taking. . In the meanwhile the negotiations between England and Germany respecting their relative position in the Western Pacific had been completed, and I now transmit to you a paper just presented to the Imperial Parliament, containing declarations, signed at Berlin on the 6th and 10th April between the two Governments, for the demarcation of British and German spheres of influence in the Pacific, and for the establishment of reciprocal freedom of trade throughout their possessions and protectorates, as well as a mutual engagement between the two Powers never to establish any penal settlements in those regions. I have mentioned above the conversation I had with Lord Granville ; and I should add that his Lordship purposes to renew it in a few days, desiring me to send him an aide-memoire on the points wo discussed. I should therefore be very glad if, by the time I have to wait upon him again, you should have been able to send me more definite instructions. In the meantime the Victorian Government, having directed their representative here to reply at once to Lord Granville's despatch, I enclose copies of the letter just sent in by Major-General Sir Andrew Clarke, K.C.M.G., Acting-Agent-General for Victoria, in which you will find the argument against any cession of the New Hebrides to France repeated with much power. By next mail I hope to examine the present aspect of the question more fully than I am able to do now. I have, &c, The Hon. the Premier, Wellington. F. D. Bkll.

Enclosure to No. 1.

No. 2.

Not printed.

No. 1.

No. 3.

Enclosure 1. I.—Declamation between the Governments of Great Britain and the German Empire relating to the Demarcation of the British and German Spheres of Influence in the Western Pacific. (Signed at Berlin, 6th April, 1886.) The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Government of His Majesty the German Emperor, having resolved to define the limits of the British and German spheres of influence in the Western Pacific, The undersigned, duly empowered for that purpose, viz., (1) Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; (2) Count Herbert Bismarck, His Imperial Majesty's Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, have agreed, on behalf of their respective Governments, to make the following declaration : — 1. For the purpose of this declaration the expression " Western Pacific " means that part of the Pacific Ocean lying between tile 15th parallel of north latitude and the 30th parallel of south latitude, and between the 165 th meridian of longitude west and the 130 th meridian of longitude east of Greenwich. • 2. A convential line of demarcation in the Western Pacific is agreed to, starting from the northeast coast of New Guinea, at a point near Mitre Rock, on the Bth parallel of south latitude, being