A.—2

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(I.) That colonising companies and boards of trustees should be encouraged to be formed in different parts of the country, and existing companies utilised for the carrying-out of the plan, subject to Government control and approval of their arrangements. Any funds provided by them for the purpose should be brought within and have the benefit of the guarantees and securities above mentioned. (m.) That, inasmuch as, after emigration by all existing methods is allowed for, the population of Britain increases by about a thousand per day, or over 330,000 per year, and this number is itself increasing, the matter ought to be grasped at once on a large scale, and arrangements made for at once selecting centres. It is obvious that to take off even one year's excess it would require 3,000 of such settlements of a hundred souls in each. To grapple with such numbers considerable time must elapse for organization, selection, and preparation ; but the evil is so grave that at least an experiment of two hundred of such settlements should be immediately selected and taken in hand before the present year closes. Assuming only a hundred persons are sent to each, even this would only provide for twenty thousand people, and would cost only £1,200,000 —which, however, would be virtually entirely spent in labour and wages, nearly all in the colonies and of an obviously reproductive kind, besides strengthening the weak parts of the Empire politically.

No. 38. (Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, sth September, 1887. With reference to my circular despatch of the 7th July last, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Government, a copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Berlin, enclosing the text and a translation of a law passed by the German Reichstag amending the Consular jurisdiction introduced into the German Protectorate in regard to the law of real property. I also transmit to you a copy of a further despatch from Mr. Scott, with an Imperial decree introducing a system of land-legislation in the Protectorate of the New Guinea Company. I desire to draw particular attention to Articles 10 and 12 of this decree. I have, &c, H. T. HOLLAND. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. [For enclosures, see A.-3, 1888, No. 5, Appendices to Journals of House of Eepresentatives.]

No. 24,

No. 39. (Circular.) Sir,— Downing Street, Bth September, 1887. With reference to the question of trade and merchandise discussed by the Colonial Conference, and to the circular despatches of the 29th October, 1883; 18th April, 1884; 9th July, 1884; 30th November, 1885; and 10th February, 1887, I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of " An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Fraudulent Marks on Merchandise," which has been passed during the present session of Parliament. 2. I also enclose a copy of a letter from the Board of Trade, forwarding a copy of the special report of the Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to consider the Bill as introduced into Parliament; and a copy of a further letter from that department enclosing a copy of a memorandum showing the nature and extent of the protection granted by the Act to foreign subjects, together with the general effect of its provisions in respect to foreign countries. 3. It will be seen, on reference to the proceedings of the Colonial Conference, that the delegates were unanimously in favour of uniformity upon this subject; and I would therefore urge upon your Government the desirability of similar legislation — mutatis mutandis —in order, as far as possible, to secure that uniformity and to check fraud. 4. I request that you will report to me what action your Government may propose to take in the matter. I have, &c, H. T. HOLLAND. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.