D.—No. 1

38

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE

Money Order Post Offices or to the Immigration Officer at the capital town of each Province or County. 2. Any person resident in the Colony, desirous of nominating relatives or friends in Europe for passages to New Zealand, may do so by paying at any Money Order Post Office or to the Immigration Officers aforesaid the sum of £5 for each adult (except single women) under. 50 years of age, and £2 10s. for each child under 12 years of age. Infants under one year, free. In certain cases, bills will be taken in lieu of cash payments, and passages will be provided for persons over 50 years of age. (See clause 6, sees. 1 and 3.) Widows with families are, as a rule, not eligible, and applications for passages in their behalf are only to be made to the Immigration Officers aforesaid. (See clause 6, sec. 4.) 3. Free passages will be granted to girls of 12 years of age and upwards accompanying their parents, and to single women between the ages of 16 and 35, provided they are able to produce proof of good character to the satisfaction of the Agent-General in London. 4. Every single woman will be required, before embarkation, to pay to the Agent-General 255., and every other adult 20s. (and children in proportion), for bedding, blankets, and mess utensils. 5. In the event of any emigrant applied for declining to emigrate, whatever money cr bills may have been deposited with the Government wiil be returned to the applicant so soon as the AgentGeneral shall have apprised the Government thereof; but in the event of any emigrant applied for accepting the offer of a passage in a particular ship, and so, by failing to present himself for embarkation at the time and port appointed by the Agent-Generaf for the sailing of such ship, be left behind, the passage money will bo forfeited. 0. The Immigration Officer at the capital town in each Province or County (and he only) will receive applications as under : — 1. From persons who may wish to give bills for the passage money of their relatives or friends, instead of paying cash, as provided for in clause 1. The amount of the bills to be taken will be 50 per cent, over the amount above fixed to be paid in cash, and the bills will become due 30 days after the arrival of the immigrants sent for. 2. From persons wdio desire to leave to their agents in Europe the nomination of emigrants of any particular class. The terms will be the same as if nominated in the Colony. 3. From persons whose friends are over 50 years of age. 4. From persons whose friends are widows with children. 7. The above rates being only for the passage from the port of embarkation to the Colony, the cost of conveyance to such port and to the residence of their friends after arrival in the Colony, must be defrayed by the emigrants themselves. 8. All the ships employed in this service will be under the provisions of the Passenger Act. 9. It is to be distinctly understood that, notwithstanding applications may have been granted at Money Order Post Offices, the Immigration Officers aforesaid are empowered to object to any of the emigrants so nominated being sent out, either from unsuitability of occupation or from any other cause; and the Agent-General in London will have power to refuse passages where the intending emigrants are in ill-health, or in any way unfitted, according to his judgment, to- undertake the voyage. Given under the hand of His Excellency Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, at the Government House, at Wellington, this first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventytwo. W. Gisborne.

No. 27. Memorandum for the Agent-General, London. (No. 40, 1872.) Public Works Office, Wellington, 16th March, 1872. Duplicates are enclosed of the following memoranda sent to you direct last month by the Hon. the Resident Minister for the Middle Island :— 16th February, No. 1. —Forwarding copies of correspondence relative to certain emigrants proposed to be brought out at the request of Mr. Finlay Murchison and others, of Eiverton. 16th February, No. 2.—lnstructions relative to the emigrants to be sent out to Stewart's Island. 19th February, No. 3. —State of the labour markets in Otago and Canterbury. 19th February, No. 4.—Forwarding letter from Canterbury Flax Association. 19th February, No. 5.—A moderate number of tinsmiths and coopers required. W. Gisborne.

Enclosure in No. 27. Memorandum No. 2 for the Agent-General, London. Office of the Resident Minister for the Middle Island, Christchurch, 16th February, 1872. Annexed is a copy of a letter from His Honor the Superintendent of Otago on the subject of the introduction of immigrants into Stewart's Island, requesting me to forward instructions that a shipment should be forwarded direct to Port William, either from Orkney and Shetland or the Hebrides. During the last month I have visited Stewart's Island, and, though my visit was short, satisfied myself that a moderate number of immigrants of the kind proposed by Mr. Macandrew might be introduced with advantage, provided proper steps are taken to meet their wants on arrival, and put them in the way of earning their living.