A.—6.

18

made through, the channel which is insisted upon as the only proper one in the circumstances, without conveying a rebuke to myself, and separating me from my Advisers in the matter. Your Excellency takes occasion to express your satisfaction that I agree with you that official correspondence " between Victoria and New Zealand shall continue hereafter to pass through the usual channels," while you describe my Despatch of the 25th November as an " attempt at innovation upon a rule established by competent authority." You also demonstrate the convenience of this rule. I cannot admit by implication that I have either traversed the rules or innovated upon the practice which I have found to exist in the Australasian Colonies. But as your Excellency would seem to concur with your Ministers in considering that I have done so, I may point out that it is at least open to argument that when the Governor of a Colony, in Executive Council, issues a proclamation affecting another, which the Governor of the latter is advised to have been ultra vires on the part of the issuing authority, besides being injurious to the trade of his Colony, he may not properly address himself to the Governor himself, who it would appear to be responsible for not lending his authority, even upon the advice of his Ministers, to acts which are not warranted by law. That principle was stated by the Secretary of State to the Governor of New South "Wales in Despatches written in 1868 and 1869, and afterwards, if I recollect rightly, made Circular, but certainly laid before the Parliament of New South Wales. It may be that, when my attention was drawn to the case by my Advisers, my more proper course would have been to have addressed the Secretary of State; but the course I adopted seemed to me more convenient. It was, however, in no degree intended on my own part to " impugn personally the action of your Ministry," as it was described by Mr. Francis, or to innovate upon established rule, as described by your Excellency. I have, &c, James Febgusson, His Excellency Sir George F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., Victoria. Governor. His Excellency Sir James Fergusson, Bart., to His Excellency Sir G. F. Bowen. Sic, — Government House, Auckland, New Zealand, 27th May, 1874. After the correspondence that has passed between us with reference to my Despatch addressed to your Excellency on the 25th November, 1873,1 regret to have to add to it; but, as from the receipt of your first reply I have abstained from any discussion with you of the subjectmatter, except so much as had been made personal to myself, I cannot help transmitting also to your Excellency the reply of my Ministers to the Memoranda of yours, which reflected upon the consistency of their conduct equally with the propriety of the course which I had taken upon their advice. I have, therefore, now the honor to transmit to your Excellency a copy of a Memorandum (27th April, 1874), addressed to me by the Premier, and have only to add that my present residence here, and my necessary absence from time to time in remote districts, has occasioned unavoidable delay in its being forwarded. I have, &c, James Feegttsson, His Excellency Sir George F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., Victoria. Governor. Memorandum for His Excellency Sir James Feegusson, Bart., by the Hon. the Peemiee, New Zealand. The Premier has had under his consideration the Despatch of His Excellency the Governor of Victoria and the Memorandum of the Chief Secretary of Victoria, both of which are herewith returned, with the recommendation that copies be supplied to the Colonial Secretary's Department for use, if necessary. The remarks of the Chief Secretary have already been anticipated in a former Memorandum on the subject, addressed to His Excellency. It was therein explained that it was through accident the Premier discovered the illegal nature of the proclamation, and at once drew His Excellency's attention thereto. In ignorance of the illegal nature of the proclamation, the Colonial Secretary thanked the Chief Secretary of Victoria for the consideration shown by his Government. The Premier in his Memorandum equally recognized that consideration, whilst^regretting that it was followed by a concession to pressure inconsistent with a regard to legal requirements. In short, the Government of New Zealand would have no right to complain of the proclamation if it was legal, nor of recourse to the Victorian Parliament to enable it to be legally made. But, in the absence of its being legally made, they have the same right to complain of it as Great Britain would have of an illegal proclamation excluding its stock from the Colonies. Eespecting the Despatch of the Governor of Victoria, the Premier has the honor to remark that the Government of New Zealand have never imagined that the Governor of the Colony was liable to be instructed by any one but Her Majesty's Ministers. Sir W. Denison, during the latter part of his service, was Governor-General only in name, if, indeed, his commission so styled him. It was, no doubt, competent to Sir W. Denison to explain his views on the subject of Constitutional Government, and from a Governor of his experience, such expressions would naturally be received with respect; but verbal advice and counsel of the kind cannot be incorporated into the system of Colonial Government, at least as far as New Zealand is concerned. There would be no limit to the liabilities arising from such recollections ; not that there is anything to object to in the Governor of Victoria's recollections of Sir W. Denison's views. They obviously do not apply to the case in point. If Sir W. Denison had been consulted concerning the case of a Governor inadvertently signing an obviously illegal proclamation, he would probably have advised that the error should bo immediately rectified, no matter who called His Excellency's attention to the mistake he had made. He certainly would not have resented another Governor's addressing him direct on the subject, instead of through the Secretary of State. Wellington, 27th April, 1874. Julius Vogel.