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In concluding this report of our proceedings, we desire to express our warm acknowledgment of the courtesy with which we were received by His Honour the Administrator and the Government of Fiji. It is also due to the settlers that we should record the sympathy expressed by all whom we met with the objects of our mission, which has fairly broken ground, created a good understanding, and will, we trust, be found before long to bear good fruit. We have, &c, F. J. Moss, M.H.E. The Hon. Sir J. Vogel, K.C.M.G., &c, Wellington. William Seed.
Enclosure 1. The Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Levuka, to Messrs. Moss, M.H.E., and Seed. Gentlemen, — Levuka, 15th April, 1886. I have the honour, by direction of the Chamber, to express the regret of its members that they have been unable to meet you and discuss the important matter which forms the object of your visit to this colony. Their regret is the greater inasmuch as the movement for closer political association with your colony, which, it may be fairly presumed, has not been without its influence in inducing the present action of your Government, had its origin in Levuka. It therefore follows that the colonists here resident take the keenest interest in any movement which would have the effect of drawing the two colonies closer together, either commercially or politically, and it is felt to be a special deprivation which has denied them free speech with you on these important matters. It was hoped that your engagements would have permitted of your visiting Levuka by the " Arawata;" and the members of the Chamber, with the members of the Planters' Association and Annexation Committee, and many prominent citizens, agreeably anticipated the pleasure of meeting you at dinner and making your personal acquaintance. As, however, circumstances did not permit of this, I am instructed to convey to you the general feeling of sympathy with your mission, and the desire to co-operate as far as may be possible in furthering the object you have in view. With this is also associated a warm feeling of personal regard and a deep sense of the public loss in being denied the profit and pleasure of closer communication. I have, &c, Messrs. Moss and Seed, F. P. Prichard, Eepresentatives of New Zealand in Fiji. Secretary.
Enclosure 2. Messrs. Moss, M.H.E., and Seed to the Seceetaby, Chamber of Commerce, Levuka. Sib,-— Suva, 16th April, 1886. We have the honour to acknowledge your letter of the 15th, and to thank the Chamber of Commerce for the sympathy expressed therein with the object of the mission with which we have been charged by the Government of New Zealand. That mission, as you correctly surmised, was to encourage commercial intercourse between the Colonies of Fiji and New Zealand by mutual concessions in the Customs duties levied on the produce and manufactures of the respective colonies. It would have given us great pleasure to have met your Chamber and to have its assistance, but the time at our disposal was so limited as to render a visit to Levuka impossible. The Chamber will, however, be glad to hear that we have received from His Honour the Administrator the most cordial reception, and an attentive consideration of our representations. Coming as we did without previous intimation, we could not expect that any definite arrangement could be at once effected ; but we leave with the knowledge that the Government of Fiji will give to the subject the fullest consideration, and with the hope that our mission may lead to a closer commercial connection between Fiji and New Zealand, and ultimately to the establishment of a wider system of reciprocity, embracing all the Australasian Colonies. Thanking you for the kind, personal feeling expressed in your letter, and regretting that the necessary shortness of our stay precluded our visiting Levuka. We have, &c, F. J. Moss, M.H.E. William Seed. F. P. Prichard, Esq., Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Levuka.
No. 13. W. Seed, Esq., to the Hon. Sir Julius Vogel. Sik,— Wellington, 26th April, 1886. I do myself the honour to forward for your information the enclosed copy of a petition to His Honour the Administrator of the Government of Fiji, asking him to give favourable consideration to the proposals of the New Zealand Government for the establishment of a commercial treaty between Fiji and New Zealand. This document was appended to a letter from the Fiji correspondent of the New Zealand Herald which appeared in that paper on the 22nd instant. It furnishes strong evidence of the earnest desire of the European settlers at Fiji to see commercial intercourse between that colony and New Zealand promoted by every possible means. I have, &c, The Hon. Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G., &c, Wellington. William Seed.
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