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Queen has been pleased to issue under the Royal Sign-Manual and Signet, appointing the Right Hon. the Earl of Camperdown and Samuel Whitbread, Esq., M.P., to be Commissioners to inquire into the state of the defences of the more important colonial jiorts and coaling-stations, and to consider the apportionment of the cost of such defences , in the place of the Right Hon. Hugh Culling Eardley Childers, M.P., and Thomas Brassey, Esq., M.P., who have been discharged by Her Majesty from further service as such Commissioners. I have, &c, The Officer Administering the Government KIMBERLEY. of New Zealand.

No. 14. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley to the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. (Circular) Sir, — Downing Street, sth August, 1880. I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of your Government, copies of a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, dated the sth April, 1880, which has been concluded between this country and Roumania, and of which the draft was communicated to you for the concurrence of your Government in my predecessor's circular despatch of the sth of June, 1878. If your Ministers should desire —which, however, I do not anticipate to be likely—that the colony under your government should be exempted from the operation of the treaty, I have to request that you will inform me of their wishes as speedily as possible, in order that Her Majesty's Government may take the necessary steps to procure the exclusion, under the protocol which is annexed to the treaty, of such colonies as may desire it. I have, &c, The Officer Administering the Government KIMBERLEY. of New Zealand.

No, 15. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley to Governor Sir Hercules Robinson. (No. 23.) Sir, — Downing Street, 17th August, 1880. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 34, of the 4th June last, enclosing a copy of the speech with which you opened the Second Session of the Seventh Parliament of New Zealand, together with Addresses in Reply presented by both Houses of Parliament. I have, &c, Governor Sir Hercules Robinson, K.C.M.G., KIMBERLEY. &c, &c, &c.

No. 16. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Eight Hon. the Earl of Kimberley to the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. (No. 24.) Sir, — Downing Street, 24th August, 1880. With reference to my predecessor's Despatch No. 11, of the 25th February last, respecting the allocation of one cadetship per annum at the Royal Military College to students of each of the colonial Universities to which a Charter by Letters Patent has been granted, I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of your Government, a copy of a correspondence which has taken place between this department and the War Office relative to these appointments, and to the further proposal that colonial candidates for the army who are not 2—A. 2.