A.—2

1887. NEW ZEALAND.

DESPATCHES FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO THE GOVERNOR OF NEW ZEALAND.

Presented to both Homes of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. (New Zealand, No. 78.) Sir, — Downing Street, 27th December, 1880. I have the honour to transmit to you an extract from a memorandum by Count Hatzfeldt, containing allegations in respect of the action of English traders in the service of the Auckland firm of Messrs. Henderson and Macfarlane in supplying arms and ammunition to natives of the Marshall group; and I request that you will move your Government to cause inquiries to be made on the subject, and that I may be informed of the result. Your Government are no doubt aware that if these allegations were correct the offending parties would at the period referred to have been liable to fine or imprisonment on conviction in the High Commissioner's Court, under the Western Pacific Eegulation No. 1, of 1884, a copy of which is forwarded for convenience of reference. I have, &c, FEED. STANLEY. Governor Sir W. F. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.8., &c.

Enclosure 1. Exteact from a Memobandum by Count Hatzfeldt. A communication, dated the 2nd June, from the German house of Eobertson and Hernsheim, established on the Marshall Islands, contains the following statement: " Notwithstanding that the commander of the English war-vessel ' Dart' had at the time prohibited the sale by English subjects on the Marshall Islands group of arms and ammunition to the natives, the English traders in the service of the Auckland firm of Henderson and Macfarlane have been the very people who have been doing a good business in arms, to the prejudice of the trade carried on with the natives by our retailers, whom, at the instance of the above-named war-vessel, we had also prohibited from selling arms to the natives." The Imperial Government abstained at the time from bringing this complaint to the notice of Her Majesty's Government, as it appeared to them more correct to await the result of the negotiations entered into with England respecting an internal control, to be arranged by treaty, over the sale of arms to the natives in the South Sea.

Enclosure 2. Appendix 111. (No. 1 of 1884.) Victoeia, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c. A Eegulation (made in the name and on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty by Her Majesty's High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, under the Provisions of the Western Pacific Order in Council of 1879) to prohibit the Supply of Arms, Ammunition, and Explosive Substances to Natives of the Western Pacific Islands. G. William dcs Yceux, [l. s.] H.B.M. High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. sth April, 1884. 1. In this regulation the expression " Western Pacific Islands " means and includes any of the following islands or places, namely,—(l) The part of the Island of New Guinea eastward of the I—A. 2.