A.—l.

(New Zealand, No. 36.) Sir, — Downing Street, Bth August, 1888. •4 have to acknowledge receipt of your Despatch No. 29, of the 26th March, forwarding a memorandum from the Premier covering a communication addressed to him by Mr. J. Bryce with, reference to my despatch of the 15th August last on the subject of the case of Bryce versus Rusden. 2. I have carefully considered the representations of your Ministers, and I have read with attention the passages to which they refer in the report of the action Bryce versus Rusden. The observations of the counsel engaged in the case necessarily cannot be taken as impartial, and it is to be noticed that throughout his references to Sir Arthur Gordon the presiding Judge cast no censure upon that Governor. I fully accept, however, the proposition of your Ministers that the Governor should command the respect and confidence of the people of the colony over which he presides; and the inference would indeed be groundless that Her Majesty's Government are careless of the maintenance of the cordial relations which have hitherto subsisted between the Mother-country and the colonies because Sir Arthur Gordon is now employed, at a great distance from New Zealand, in another Government. 3. I desire to express my sympathy with Mr. Bryce, and my satisfaction at finding that he has so entirely cleared his character from the painful charges brought against him, and I wish it to be fully understood that Her Majesty's Government have not, as is apparently supposed, at any stage expressed approval of the conduct of Sir Arthur Gordon in this matter. 4. It has throughout been felt that the course taken by Mr. Bryce for the purpose of disproving the imputations which had been made against him was the right one, and that it would have been irregular for Her Majesty's Government to inquire into the unofficial acts of a person who had not been made a party in the case. Ido not think, therefore, that any good would result from my now expressing an official opinion upon acts which were done so long ago as 1882 by the then Governor, and which in 1886 were brought under the notice of a Court of law. lam the more confirmed in this view by the fact that one of my predecessors, who had the subject fully before him while it was still recent, did not think it necessary to take any action in the matter. 5. In these circumstances I must adhere to the decision which I announced in the House of Commons in August last. I have, &c, Governor Sir W. F. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.8., &c. KNUTSFORD.

CONSTITUTION OF COLONIAL EXECUTIVE AND OF REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLIES. (Circular.) Sir,— Downing Street, 26th March, 1888. I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a resolution of the House of Commons for a return, moved for by Mr. Francis Stevenson, showing the constitution of the Executive in each colony, and, in the case of colonies having Representative Assemblies, the constitution of those Assemblies, the number of members; the number of electors, and the qualifications requisite for members and electors, and I have to request that you will be good enough to supply, at your earliest convenience, a memorandum giving the information desired for this return, so far as it is applicable to the colony under your Government. It would be very useful and convenient to show concisely in the same return the constitution, number of members, and conditions of tenure of the legislative body or bodies of each colony, and, in those cases in which the Chamber is wholly or partly elective, the qualifications for members and electors, and I have to request that you will add to your memorandum so much of this information as is not covered bv the terms of the resolution. I have, &c, KNUTSEORD. Governor Sir W. F. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.8., &c.

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