ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OP STATE.

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A.—No. Ll

crisis in the history of New Zealand, to place on record a truthful statement of its present position in relation to the mother country. They desire to preserve the fair fame of the Colony from unjust reproach; and they earnestly appeal to the Home Government to do tardy but effectual justice, and to extend to the Colony, in the arduous course before it, that sympathy and moral co-operation due to every integral portion of the British Empire, but to which New Zealand, its young and remote off-shoot, deprived as it is of all external aid, and charged with heavy Imperial responsibilities, has a pre-eminent claim. E. W. Staffoed.

Sub-Enclosure 1 in Enclosure to No. 37. Copy of a Minute by the Colonial Tbeasueee. Foe the Honoeable the Colonial Seceetaet, — In reference to that portion of Deputy-Commissary-General Strickland's letter which complains that monthly payments were not made by the Colony as promised, the Colonial Treasurer refers to his Memorandum of the 2nd April last, of which a copy is attached. Since then a requisition has been forwarded to this Department from the Colonial Defence Department (dated 20th April) for the amount of £2042 lis. Id., purporting to be for provisions issued to the Colonial Forces during the month of January last, and for Wanganui, for December, 1866. (The terms of Lieutenant-Colonel Pitt's letter, dated Auckland, 10th April, 1867, are quoted.) The Colonial Treasurer has this day signed a cheque for the payment of the amount thus claimed. That is, within fourteen days after the receipt of the particulars of demand the vouchers are examined and the payment is provided for, although, as will be seen, the forwarding the accounts was delayed by the Imperial Authorities till about three months after the issue of the supplies which was made in December, 1866, and January, 1867, respectively. The Colonial Treasurer considers that these dates and figures constitute a sufficient reply to that portion of Deputy-Commissary-General Strickland's letter which charges the Colony with delay in making the monthly payments promised. Treasury, 9th May, 1867. William Fitzheebebt.

Sub-Enclosure 2 in Enclosure to No. 37. Copy of a Memorandum by the Colonial Tbeasueee. Foe the Honoeable the Colonial Seceetaet, — Eeferring to the specific arrangement entered into by the Colonial Government, in the earlier part of last year, to pay the Imperial Commissariat every month for the amount of rations issued by them for the use of the Colonial Troops, the Colonial Treasurer draws attention to the great irregularity which has occurred in the transmission to the Treasury of those accounts. From June, 1866 (the date on which the specific arrangement above referred to was to come into operation), to the present date, payments have been made by the Colonial Treasurer to the account of the above service to the extent of £20,130 9s. lid., being in respect of the several months of June, July, August, September, November, and December, 1866. No account, however, has been received at the Treasury for the intervening month of October, although it appears that certain vouchers connected with that month's accounts are under the examination of the Audit. It is possible, therefore, that the delay in this instance may rest with the Colonial and not with the Imperial Authorities; but with respect to the month of July, the account was only forwarded from Auckland under date 22nd February last* (Assistant Military Secretary's letter No. 4949), and only reached the Treasury on the 27th March ultimo, when it was immediately remitted for to Auckland on the Ist instant; i.e., the account occupied nearly eight months in reaching the Treasury ; and no accounts have yet been presented at the Treasury for either of the months of the present year. The attention of the Honorable the Colonial Secretary is directed to this circumstance, inasmuch as remonstrances have been addressed to the Colonial Government against the want of punctuality in making these payments to the Imperial Commissariat; whereas, in some instances (as above stated), no accounts have been received, or they have been greatly delayed. Treasury, 2nd April, 1867. William Fitzheebebt.

No. 38. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.8., to the Right Hon. the Duke of Buckingham. (Separate.) Government House, Auckland, My Lord Duke,— 28th June, 1867. My Responsible Advisers have requested me to bring under your Grace's notice the enclosed Memorandum, in which they earnestly remonstrate against the use made by the Major-General of his power of giving temporary local rank to officers of the Imperial Eorces, with a view of enabling him to assume command over the heads of officers of H.M. Local Offices, as * A statement of this account was originally received by tho Governor, on the Ist October, 1866, but required to be amended, and the amended account, duly vouched for, did not reach the Colonial Treasury until March, 1867.