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(Circular.) No. 9. My Lord, — Downing Street, Bth June, 1891. At the request of the Eoyal Commission on Labour, I have the honour to request that you will be good enough to procure and transmit, with as little delay as possible, copies of any books, pamphlets, or other works bearing on the questions into which that Commission is about to inquire, and which are shown in the enclosed copy of a report by the Procedure Committee of the Commission. The works desired are practical books relating to existing labour questions, excluding theoretical works relating to past phases of such questions. The collection should, if possible, include copies of the reports for two years, at least, of any Labour Bureaux, Boards of Arbitration, and analogous bodies, as also copies of the reports, if published, of any Government departments, such as reports of factory and mining inspectors, reports of official inquiries into strikes or into the condition of labour generally. Official or private publications treating of labour in other countries than the country of issue would be of value, more especially those on labour in the United Kingdom; and in cases where labour associations have deputed any of their members to investigate the condition of labour in foreign countries the reports giving the results of such investigations would be useful. I have, &c, KNUTSFOED. The Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand.

No. 10. (New Zealand, No. 22.) My Lord, — Downing Street, 9th June, 1891. I have received, through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a letter, with an enclosure, of which a copy is enclosed, from the President of the New Zealand Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic, with reference to the question of the maintenance of the prohibitory law formerly existing in Earotonga. I gather from the correspondence laid before the New Zealand Legislature, enclosed in your Despatch No. 15, of the 10th March, and particularly from Mr. Moss's report, printed at pages 13-16 of that paper, and from the instructions which you addressed to that officer on the 25th February, that the difficulty of the maintenance of the law referred to has arisen as much from the opposition of the native chiefs themselves as from the inefficiency of the European staff, as at present constituted, to enforce it. I request that your Lordship will cause Sir William Fox to be made acquainted with the state of the case, and of the reasons which influenced Mr. Moss in adopting a permit system. He will then see that the action taken by Mr. Moss was based upon the belief that total prohibition would fail, and that therefore it would be desirable to endeavour to check the traffic by strict regulation. Should, however, the system fail it w T ould be possible to recur to total prohibition. I have, &c, The Eight Hon. the Earl of Onslow, &c. KNUTSFOED.

A. 1, 1891, Sess, 11., No. 11.

Enclosure to A.-l, 1891, Sess. 11., No. 11.

Enclosure. Sir William Fox to the Marquis of Salisbury. My Lord, — Auckland, New Zealand, 24th January, 1891. On behalf of the New Zealand Alliance for the Suppression of the Liquor Traffic I have the honour to forward to your Lordship, through His Excellency the Governor of this colony, a statement in reference to the action of the lately-appointed Eesident at Earotonga, in the Cook Islands group, in the South Pacific, Mr. F. J. Moss. The excuse for the interference of the Alliance in this matter is that the Queen of Earotonga has quite recently appealed to it to assist her Government in the maintenance of a prohibitory law, which forms part of the national Constitution of the islanders, and which it appears to be Mr. Moss's desire to get them to repeal, substituting for it a system of licensing similar to that which has worked so disastrously elsewhere. As it is understood that Mr. Moss is under the control of your Lordship's department, the Alliance has thought it right to bring under your Lordship's notice the facts of the case. I have, &c, Wm. Fox, K.C.M.G., President of the New Zealand Alliance. The Most Noble the Marquis of Salisbury, &c, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

A.-l, 1891, Sess 11., No. 12.