A.—2

7

prohibited in this country unless the requirements of English municipal law have been complied with." May I understand from this that if certain requirements are carried out, marriages at Swedish consulates may be lawfully performed in this country by the Swedish Consuls, and, if so, might I be favoured with a statement of these requirements? My Government further desiring to empower their Ministers and certain Consuls to solemnise the marriage of a Swedish subject, not only to another Swedish subject, but also to any other person who may not be a subject of the land in which the marriage takes place, I would also be grateful to Your Lordship for information whether such marriages, where one party is a Swedish subject and the other of some other nationality, will be recognised in the British Empire, if performed at a Swedish legation or consulate by the competent Swedish officer, on the condition that the non-Swedish party is not a British subject. I have, &c, The Marquess of Lansdowne, E.G., &c. Ch. Em. Ramel.

No. 6. (No. 35.) My Lord,— Downing Street, sth May, 1905. I have the honour to transmit to you, to be laid before your Ministers, the accompanying extract from the Daily Mail of the 24th April, concerning the disappearance of penguin rookeries in the Auckland Islands. 2. Mrs. Speed, of " The Rectory," Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, has asked me to bring the extract to the attention of your Ministers, with a view to the preservation of the rookeries. I have, &c, ALFRED LYTTELTON. Governor the Right Hon. Lord Plunket, X.C.V.0., &c.

Enclosure. Doom of the Penguin. Dr. E, A. Wilson, the assistant surgeon of the "Discovery" Antarctic Expedition, has recently littered some grave warnings as to the fate of the penguin rookeries of Macquarie Island and the Auckland Islands. He is anxious that the Society for the Protection of Birds should endeavour to rescue these helpless creatures from the greed of company promoters. For some years past speculators have pushed a growing trade in penguin oil, no less than 100 tons of this, procured by boiling down countless thousands of birds, having recently been put upon the market. Quite lately, Dr. Wilson remarks, information has come to hand of a scheme to send out cauldrons to the Auckland Islands to facilitate the traffic, which means that the last of the birds will soon have disappeared.

No. 7. (No. 38.) My Lord, — Downing Street, 24th May, 1905. I have the honour to transmit to you, for communication to your Ministers, the papers noted in the subjoined schedule. I have, &c, ALFRED LYTTELTON. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

Judgment of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the Appeal of Bastings and others v. Callaghan, from the Court of Appeal of New Zealand. Delivered the 12th May, 1905. Present at the hearing: Lord Macnaghten, Lord Davey, Lord Robertson, Sir Ford North, Delivered by Lord Macnaghten. The question raised on this appeal is whether Mr. Graham, a Stipendiary Magistrate within the Colony of New Zealand, duly appointed under " The Magistrates' Courts Act, 1893," had jurisdiction to hear a petition in the matter of " The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act Amendment Act, 1895," which was filed in the office of the Magistrate's Court, Port Chalmers. The question turns upon the construction of the Act of 1895, and involves consideration of provisions in three other Acts—" The Regulation of Local Elections Act, 1876," the Act of 1893, and "The Resident Magistrate's Act, 1867," which the Act of 1893 repealed.

Enclosure. Date. I Subject. 12th May, 1905 ' .. .. Judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the appeal of Bastings and others t>. r Callaghan (three enclosures).