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Abticle X.—The present Convention shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London within months at the latest, and sooner if possible.

No. 68. (Circular.) Sib, — Downing Street, 7th January, 1888. A question having recently arisen regarding the recognition of a Swedish Vice-Consul appointed on the application of a Consul for Sweden and Norway, I have the honour to inform you that powers are vested in Swedish Consuls to appoint Vice-Consuls in the districts over which their jurisdiction extends, without reference to their Government. When application is made, therefore, to a Governor of a colony by a Swedish Consul for the recognition of a Swedish Vice-Consul, if no objection to the latter is entertained by the colonial authorities, the Governor is at liberty to recognise the Vice-Consul at once, and a simple notification to Her Majesty's Government of the appointment will be sufficient. I have, &c, H. T. HOLLAND. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

No. 69. (Circular.) Sic, — . . . Downing Street, 9th January, 1888. I have the honour to transmit to you, for publication in the colony under your Government, a copy of an Order of Her Majesty in Council, extending the provisions of " The Foreign Deserters Act, 1852," to the Eepublic of Paraguay. I have, &c, H. T. HOLLAND. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

Enclosure. At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, the 29th day of December, 1887. Present: The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. Wheeeas by " The Foreign Deserters Act, 1852," it is provided that whenever it is made to appear to Her Majesty that due facilities are or will be given for recovering and apprehending seamen who desert from British merchant-ships in the territories of any foreign Power, Her Majesty may, by Order in Council stating that such facilities are or will be given, declare that seamen, not being slaves, who desert from merchant-ships belonging to a subject of such Power when within Her Majesty's dominions, shall be liable to be apprehended and carried on board their respective ships, and may limit the operation of such order, and may render the operation thereof subject to such conditions and qualifications, if any, as may be deemed expedient: And whereas it hath been made to appear to Her Majesty that due facilities for recovering and apprehending seamen who desert from British merchant-ships in the territories of the Eepublic of Paraguay will be given under a treaty between the Governments of Great Britain and Paraguay signed at Assumption on the 16th October, 1884 : Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by virtue of the powers vested in her by the said "Foreign Deserters Act, 1852," and by and with the advice of her Privy Council, is pleased to order and declare, and it is hereby ordered and declared, that, from and after the publication hereof in the London Gazette, seamen, not being slaves (and not being British subjects), who desert from merchant-ships belonging to the Eepublic of Paraguay within Her Majesty's dominions shall be liable to be apprehended and carried on board their respective ships : provided always that if any such deserter has committed any crime in Her Majesty's dominions he may be detained until he has been tried by a competent Court, and until his sentence (if any) has been fully carried into effect. And the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the Secretary of State for India in Council are to give the necessary directions herein accordingly. C. L. Peel.

No. 70. (New Zealand, No. 1.) Sib, — Downing Street, 25th January, 1888. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 103, of the 16th of November, enclosing a resolution adopted by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland and the Synod of the Anglican Church of Dunedin respecting the protection of missions in the New Hebrides.

A.-1,1888, N0.20.