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Enclosure in No. 8. Memorandum for His Excellency. Ministers present their respectful compliments to His Excellency, and have the honor to return Lord Carnarvon's Despatch No. 44, of 9th .November, 1877, with its enclosed copy of correspondence between the Italian Ambassador and the Foreign Office respecting deserters from Italian vessels in New Zealand ports. 2. Count Menabrea does not state at what port the colonial authorities refused to arrest Italian deserters, and the Government, after inquiries made at each of the principal ports, cannot ascertain that any master of an Italian vessel has applied to the authorities to have such arrests made. 3. Count Menabrea claims that the Imperial Order in Council of 11th June, 1863, entitled Italian shipmasters to require the arrest of deserters ; but Lord Carnarvon in his despatch explains and regrets that that order was not officially communicated to the colonies, owing to its not having been brought under the notice of the Colonial Office at the time it was passed. 4. The colonial law on the subject (" The Foreign Seamen's Act, 1860 ") might have been taken advantage of; but the Italian Consul has not signified that his Government desired that that Act should be brought into force in respect of the masters and seamen of Italian vessels, and Count Menabrea explains why it is thought not advisable that such a course should be taken. 5. Ministers respectfully submit, therefore, that the despatch of Lord Carnarvon, taken with its enclosures, shows why the authorities in New Zealand must have been powerless as regards deserters from Italian vessels, for the Imperial Order in Council was unknown in the colony, and the colonial law was allowed by the Italian Government to remain inoperative. 6. No such difficulty as that stated by Count Menabrea can, however, occur hereafter, the Order in Council of June, 1863, having now been published in the New Zealand Gazette. G. S. WIIITMORE, Wellington, 30th January, 1878. ■ (in the absence of the Premier.)

No. 9. Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor the Most Hon. the Marquis of Normanby to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. (No. 10.) Government House, AVellington, My Lord, —■ New Zealand, Ist Eebruary, 1878. I have the honor to enclose a memorandum which I have received from my Government, by which you will see that they are anxious to convey the thanks of this colony to the Government of the United States for the very handsome and effective manner in which salmon ova have been supplied to this colony by the Eishery Commissioners of the United States, under the direction of the Chief Commissioner, the Hon. Spencer E. Baird. I venture also to express a hope, on my own part, that your Lordship will see no objection to adopt the course proposed by my Government, as I think that the action of the American Government has evinced such a feeling of friendship and generosity towards New Zealand, in a matter in which deep interest is taken, as to demand a special mark of acknowledgment and thanks on the part of this colony. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon. NORMANBY.

Enclosure in No. 9. Memorandum for His Excellency. Ministers desire respectfully to inform His Excellency the Governor that the half-million salmon ova which arrived by the mail steamer from San Francisco, in November last, have been successfully hatched and distributed to the different rivers in the colony; and that, by information that has reached the Government from various directions, it has been demonstrated that, owing to the extreme care with which the ova were packed in America, the very satisfactory result of about 95 per cent, of live fish has been obtained. 2. In addition to the half-million sent at the request of the Government, an equal quantity has been sent to the various Acclimatization Societies in the colony, and this handsome gift of salmon ova has been made to the colony without charge, except cost of package and transit, by the Fish Commission of the United States, under the direction of the Hon. Spencer F. Baird, as Chief Commissioner. 3. Ministers venture to think that so generous an action on the part of a foreign nation is