A.—2

24

Enclosure. Me. Secretary or State. - Danish. Legation, London. 23rd June, 1910. At the request of the Royal Danish Society for Agricultural Husbandry, I have been directed to obtain information concerning certain points of the agricultural instruction in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The points on which information is specially desired are the following : — 1. Which theoretical and practical measures are undertaken in order to promote agricultural instruction (schools, experiment-farms, agricultural experts, &c.) by — (a) the Government; (b) private persons, with a subsidy from the Government or from public means ; (c) private persons, without any State or public subsidy ? 2. Which is the amount of the annual subsidy referred to under 1 (a) and (6) ? 3. Is the subsidized instruction subject to certain conditions and to a supervision, and which arc these conditions ? 4. (a.) Which is in a general way the organization of the theoretical instruction (conditions of admission, terms of payment, duration and subjects of the various courses, &c.) ? (6.) How is the practical instruction organized ? 5. To what extent does the rural population take advantage of and participate in—(as) the theo retioal instruction ; (6) the practical instruction ? In these circumstances I venture to ask that you will be good enough to submit these questions to the competent authorities in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and that, together with the reply of these officials, I may be provided with copies of any printed public documents which may have been issued on these various subjects, and contain information corresponding to the questions* of my Government. I have, &c, C. Brun. Sir Edward Grey, Bart,, M.P., &c.

No. 39. New Zealand, No. 139. My Lord, — Downing Street, 4th July, 1910. I have the honour to request that you will inform your Ministers that I have had under my consideration, in conjunction with the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, Act No. 10 of 1909 of the Parliament of New Zealand, copy of which was forwarded in Lord Plunket's despatch, No. 6, of the 27th January. 2. The Board of Inland Revenue have reported to the Treasury, in a letter of which a copy is enclosed, that the Act of 1909 does not substantially comply with the conditions laid down in section 20 of the Finance Act of 1894, which was applied to New Zealand by an Order in Council of the 2nd February, 1895, in accordance with the request made by the Government of New Zealand in Lord Glasgow's despatch of the 4th December, 1894. 3. I should be glad if your Ministers would take this report into their consideration, and, if they concur with the view of the law r expressed in it, will decide whether they will introduce into the Parliament of the Dominion legislation to modify the Act of 1909, so as to make it comply with the conditions laid down in section 20 of the Finance Act of 1894, or whether they would prefer that steps should be taken to revoke the Order in Council of 1895, on the ground that the law of the Dominion has, since the date of the Order, been materially changed, and no longer complies with the conditions laid down in the Act of 1894. I have, &c, CEEWE. Governor the Right Hon. Lord Islington, D.5.0., &c.

Enclosure. Inland Revenue, Somerset House. 19th May, 1910. May it please your Lordships,— We beg to return herewith your Lordships' reference of the 24th March last, No. 5949/1910, relative to an inquiry from the Secretary of State for the Colonies as to whether —having regard to the provisions of sections 8 and 32 of an Act, No. 10 of 1909, of the Parliament of New Zealand entitled the Death Duties Act, 1909 —(1) the sections in question substantially comply with the conditions laid down in section 20 of the Finance Act, 1894 ; and (2) the practice in force in the United Kingdom is to the like effect as that in New Zealand.