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No. 45. (No. 85.) My Lobd, — Government House, Wellington, 10th September, 1886. I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I have received from the Native Minister, the Hon. J. Ballance, a Maori mat of unusually fine description, which a Native chief of the Ngatiporou tribe named Tutanihoneho, residing near Gisborne, is desirous of presenting to the Queen. The mat was made by a woman of the tribe named Hemaima Poroa. It is called a " kahu-manu," and informer times only chiefs of the highest rank could have obtained such a mat. The squares are formed of feathers from the peacock and pheasant, the pukeko and haka, and other birds. The groundwork is made of New Zealand wool, with cross-stitches of flax. Each feather is woven separately into the mat, and the work is all done by the fingers, no needle of any kind being used. I trust that your Lordship will see fit to submit this remarkable and unique specimen of Maori workmanship to the Queen, and that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to accept it. I have, &c, W. F. DRUMMOND JERVOIS. The Eight Hon. the Earl Granville, KG.

No. 46. (No. 87.) My Lokd, — Government House, Wellington, 10th September, 1886. In June last I received a letter, dated the 6th of that month, from Admiral Tryon, transmitting a copy of a despatch, dated the 28th May, addressed by him to the Governor of Victoria, in reference to memoranda, dated the 20th and 25th of May, by the Premier of that colony concerning the proposed contribution of the several Australasian Colonies towards the provision and maintenance of an addition to the present Australasian naval squadron. 2. Upon receipt of these papers I referred them to my Ministers. I have now the honour, with reference to my Despatch No. 27, of the 22nd of April, with enclosure from my Government dated the 27th March last, to forward a memorandum, dated the Ist instant, from the Premier, Sir Eobert Stout, expressing the views of my Ministers after a further consideration of the whole question. 3. Bearing in mind the fact that New Zealand is specially well situated to be the naval depot for Her Majesty's ships visiting Fiji and other islands in the Pacific, and, I may add, remembering the infrequency —from whatever cause it may have arisen—of the visits of British men-of-war to this colony for some years past, they adhere to the stipulation that a port in New Zealand should become the established headquarters of a section of the Australasian squadron in time of war. 4. It will be seen, however, that they reiterate their willingness to propose to the New Zealand Parliament that an annual payment of £20,000 should be contributed by the colony, for two years certain, towards the expense of the proposed additional naval squadron. They further state that they would be prepared to ask for a moderate increase on that sum if the cost on a peace footing of the portion of the squadron to which they refer were shown to be greater than they had estimated. 5. The proposed payment is regarded by my Ministers simply as a contribution towards the cost of the defence of British and Australasian commerce in this part of the world. They observe that the wider question, relating to the expense of Imperial naval defences generally being shared by Great Britain and her several colonies, involves that of the representation of the colonies in an Imperial Parliament—in short, leads to the consideration of the problem of " Imperial federation." 6. So intimately associated are the material interests of the Mother-country with those of her colonies that it is difficult to lay down a rule by which the financial responsibilities of under any such arrangement can be accurately measured. The matter is a complex one, and Ido not at present propose to submit a basis upon which it should be calculated.

A.-G, 1887, No. 39.. A.-G, 1887, No. 37.

No. 2. A.-G, 1887, No. 29. A.-6, 1887, No. 42.