B.—No. 5

APPENDIX. Copy of a Memorandum by Commissary-General Jones, referred to in a note on page 10. The Honorable Major Kiciiaubson, &c. — Ecferring to our conversation of this day, when you acquainted me that you find yourself unable to complete your Keport before the 7th proximo, I now do myself the honor to inform you that, having already been delayed in the Colony nine months for the sole purpose of adjusting the outstanding accounts with the Colony, I do not feel that I shall be justified iv remaining longer, the more especially as I cannot see any probability of our arriving at a satisfactory result under the system adopted. Had you complied with my suggestion six months since, and first gone with me personally into the general question of the justness of each service charged, I feel satisfied that our duty would have been completed long ere this. But by the system adopted, lam quite convinced that it will be all but impossible to complete the duty with satisfaction either to ourselves or to the Governments concerned. This is the clearer from your Memorandum of this day introducing new matter into the question before us, and that of a description that must in its very nature be protracted, involving as it jn-obably will, a reference to the Supreme Courts of the Colony. It must be seen that if new matter can thus be imported, our duty would be almost endless. My instructions from the "War OlKee, dated 9th April, 1866, are to the effect that my detention in New Zealand is for the purpose of " considering and reporting, in conjunction with an officer to be appointed by the Governor of the Colony, upon the various disputed points connected with the outstanding accounts between the Imperial and Colonial Governments." This new question on the subject of Custom drawbacks, is one I must decline to entertain ; and I would suggest that the Commissariat Officer in charge of the Department is the proper person to refer to on the subject. But in order to expedite the views of the Colonial Government, iam sending your Memorandum of this date to the officer in charge of the Commissariat Department, Auckland, who, I am confident, will use every means in his power to assist the Colonial authorities to investigate the matter in question. As nearly six months have elapsed since I handed you my account to the 31st March, 1866, complete, with the exception of three or four services (a note of which was made iipon that document), I had hoped that so far as that account went, the various questions might ere this have been discussed and decided between us ; but you have invariably declined any such discussion. And you informed me to-day that you could not go into this discussion until I presented to you the Imperial Account of Claims against the Colony complete in every respect. You at the same time require new matters to be introduced, as they transpire, without any limit to the period to which they relate. These two points are quite incompatible with any possibility of an adjustment of the accounts within any reasonable period. I am now preparing a complete account of the outstanding claims to the 30th September last, which 1 propose handing to you in a day or two, —certainly before leaving New Zealand on the Bth proximo. This account will comprise all charges against the Colony, excepting those only that may be raised by the Admiralty, which have been referred to as amounting to about £-15,000, but the details regarding which have not reached me yet. During the period 1 remain I shall be happy to meet you as frequently and for as long as you may wish, to confer upon the various services forming the Imperial claims, —To give you any information in my power regarding them, and to assist you in any other way that may be practicable. I consider further, that it is my duty here to repeat my unchanged opinion, that the service for which I have been detained in the Colony could be brought to a satisfactory termination in a very tihort time, were you to adopt the plain practical system suggested at first; and as my vouchers have been examined by your accountant, I can see no real objection to that course of proceeding, lam quite ready to co-operate with you in this respect at once; and I believe there is still ample time for the purpose before the sailing of the Panama steamer on the Bth proximo. I would remind you that I have hitherto had no complete account of the claims of the Colony against the Home Government, although I have had a statement, several schedules, and supporting vouchers, purporting to be portions of those claims. H. Stanley Jones, Commissary-General. Wellington, 31st March, 1867.