7

A.—2

No. 7. Telegram from Secretary of State, per Governor, Adelaide.—l3th April, 1889. Secretary of State for War offers services of Edwards, General Officer commanding in China, to visit colonies and inspect and report on local troops. If sufficient number of Colonial Governments decide to accept offer, he would come beginning of June. Expenses defrayed by Imperial funds. Consult Australasian Governments. We should be glad to receive early reply by telegram.

No. 8. (Circular (1.) My Lord, — Downing Street, 16th April, 1889. I have the honour to inform you that a case has recently occurred which has caused Her Majesty's Government to consider the question of the proper incidence of the expenses arising out of the trial and the conviction, or acquittal on the ground of insanity, of persons belonging to the colonies when such persons have been tried by Courts exercising jurisdiction out of Her Majesty's dominions under the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts. It appears to Her Majesty's Government to be fair and reasonable that, if a person who is a native of or ordinarily resident in a British colony commits an offence in a foreign country in which Her Majesty exercises jurisdiction over British subjects, and is either convicted, or acquitted on the ground of insanity, the expenses (so far as they cannot be met out of the effects of the prisoner under order of the Court) of his removal to the colony or place in which he is to undergo his sentence or be confined as a criminal lunatic, and of his maintenance during his imprisonment or confinement, and any other expenses incident to his conviction, or his acquittal on the ground of insanity, should not fall either on the Imperial Government, or on the Government of the colony to which he is sent to undergo his sentence or be confined unless he is a native of or ordinarily resident in that colony but upon the Government of the colony of which he is a native or in which he has ordinarily resided. I request that you will invite your Ministers to state whether they are prepared to agree to an arrangement for carrying out this principle. I have, &c, KNUTSFOED. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

No. 9. Telegram from Secretary of State. —17th April, 1889. Eeeerbing to your Despatch 42 of 1887, is colony prepared to pay Eesident (Baratonga) ?

A.-l, 1877, Sess, 11., No. 27.

No; 10. (Circular.) Sir,— Downing Street, 30th April, 1889. I have the honour to request that you will inform me whether your legal advisers see any objection to an Act of Parliament being passed enabling the Government of a British possession, on receipt of a request from the Government of another British possession (and on production of a warrant issued by a competent Court in that other British possession) for the arrest of a vessel for breach of the revenue laws thereof, to order the arrest of such vessel if found in the waters of the first British possession, and its delivery to an officer of the second British possession to be taken to the second British possession to abide the trial of the charge of breach of revenue law, and authorise the removal of the vessel accordingly. I have, &c, KNUTSFORD. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.