17

A.—6

It f urtlier demonstrates, if demonstration were necessary, the soundness of the principle that a Governor should not, as a general rule, himself take part personally in the conduct of public business. Moreover, it is obvious that Intercolonial correspondence cannot be carried on with any public advantage, if Q-overnors write in one sense and their Ministers in a different sense upon the same subject. It will be recollected that the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand thanked the Government of Victoria for the course of conduct of which the Governor of New Zealand at the same time complained as illegal. In offering these remarks, however, the Chief Secretary wishes to guard himself against misapprehension. He desires to assure your Excellency in the most unreserved manner that Sir James Fergusson, from his exalted position, is both entitled to and does command profound respect from Mr. Francis and his colleagues. If, in the matter under consideration, your Advisers showed that they felt aggrieved, both because their motives were misunderstood and that recourse was had by the Government of New Zealand to what was at least an unusual form in making their representations to this Colony, Mr. Francis is also confident that an impartial consideration of the circumstances that preceded the issue of the proclamation, as well as the fact of its repeal, as subsequently advised, show that your Advisers were anxious throughout to serve the interests of New Zealand, and will tend to remove from Sir James Fergusson's mind any impression that his arguments were treated with discourtesy. It may not be out of place, as bearing on this point, to mention that the course taken by the Government in revoking the proclamation has provoked strong remonstrance and much hostile criticism in Victoria, on the ground that there no longer exists any safeguard against the introduction, of contagious diseases from Europe by means of stock imported through New Zealand; and the Chief Secretary has been, within the last few days, urged by a most influential deputation to take immediate steps to remove all risk of danger to the Colony from this cause. J. G. Feajtcis, Chief Secretary's Office, Melbourne, 13th March, 1874. Chief Secretary. His Excellency Sir James FEEQirssoif, Bart., to His Excellency Sir G. F. Bowen. Sic,— Auckland, 13th April, 1874. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's Despatch of the 18th March, transmitting, at the request of your Advisers, a copy of a Memorandum of the Chief Secretary on my reply to your Despatch of the 20th February. I beg to accept, unreservedly, the assurance which Mr. Francis has requested your Excellency to convey to me, that, in the terms of his Memorandum of the 2nd January, no want of respect to my office or discourtesy .towards myself was intended. I should regret very much were Ito import any personal feeling into a correspondence which would be worse than useless if it had any other than a public consequence. Your Excellency's present Despatch and the Memorandum of Mr. Francis seem to me to call for some observations on my part. In offering them I will avoid referring to the merits of the original matter in controversy, as I have done since your intimation and that of your Advisers, that they considered it one upon which my official action was undesirable and inexpedient. But I regret if, in the remonstrances which I made in accordance with the wishes of my Ministers on the subject of the proclamation of the 24th October, I represented the Government of New Zealand as insensible to the friendly spirit of your Government. Mr. Francis energetically disclaims the possible construction of the terms of his reference to my Despatch of the 25th November as applying affront to myself, but I will ask you to observe that I only pointed out that they might bear that construction when taken in conjunction with certain other expressions which I quoted, and which were used with reference to myself personally. I have thought it necessary to notice these expressions, so pointed, and contained in a document intended by your Advisers to be seen by me and forwarded by you at their request. It is rather with the effect than with the severity of those expressions that I have to do, and, while in his present Memorandum Mr. Francis leaves them in full force, he charges mo with "allowing myself to be influenced by my private feelings in discussing a question of public concern," for no apparent reason, than because I have observed upon his ascription to me, in an official paper commenting upon an act of mine clone at the request of my Responsible Advisers, of having " personally impugned the action of the Ministry of another Colony," of " either a strange want of knowledge of facts, or a disregard of the practice and settled principles under which Responsible Government is conducted ;" while on the 24th and 25th pages of his Memorandum, he more than insinuates a doubt of my having, as I stated I had, been "moved by my Advisers to write." These charges are surely personal, yet I must say that I cannot feel myself to be justly chargeable with having imported either my private feelings or my personal capacity into the correspondence. On the contrary, my only inducement to prolong or even to-continue the correspondence in these circumstances, was to repel any such charge against my conduct in my official capacity. I am glad to observe that Mr. Francis, in his present Memorandum, while disclaiming any discourtesy towards myself, refers to the course taken by me, of which he had complained, as being that of " the Government of New Zealand," and I hope I may interpret this as a withdrawal from his former position of regarding my action as distinct from and inconsistent with that of my Ministers. I will not seek to find fresh occasions for objection, by insisting that my Despatch of the 25th November does not imply a departure from the " general rule " advanced by your Excellency and Mr. Francis, but I may ask you to consider that if to your Excellency and your Advisers the course then adopted appeared to be an " innovation " " unprecedented " and improper, it can hardly be regarded as usual or convenient that the Responsible Ministry of one Colony should comment strongly and criticise severe^ the official action of the Governor of another, and move the Governor whose Ministers they are, to transmit the document in an official Despatch. Without venturing to prescribe what should be your Excellency's course of action in this or in other circumstances, I beg leave to express my opinion that a complaint of inconsistency on. the part of the Government of New Zealand might have been 3—A. 6.