21

A.—2

No. 32. New Zealand, No. 127. Sir, — Downing Street, 17th June, 1910. I have the honour to acquaint you, lor the information of your Ministers, that His Majesty's Government have had under consideration with the United States Government the question of taking measures for the suspension, for a period of fifteen years, of pelagic sealing in the Pacific Ocean and the Behring Sea. 2. The exact details of the arrangement, which has not yet been finally concluded, are mainly of interest to the Government of Canada, but the Convention includes a provision, a copy of which is enclosed herewith, and to which I desire to invite the attention of your Ministers, as it provides for the prohibition of the use of any British or United States port by any persons for any purposes whatsoever connected with the operation of pelagic sealing, and prohibits the importation or bringing of any fur-seal skins taken in such pelagic sealing into any British or United States port, and the contracting States engage by the necessary legislation and enforcement of appropriate penalties thereunder to make such prohibition effective. 3. I am not aware to what extent the skins of fur-seals captured in the Pacific Ocean or the Behring Sea are imported into the Dominion, but I should be glad to learn whether your Government are prepared to take the necessary steps by legislation or otherwise to make good the undertaking into which it is proposed to enter. 4. Your Government are no doubt aware that the question of the taking of fur-seals has long occupied the attention of His Majesty's Government in conjunction with the Government of Canada, and the new arrangement which it is proposed to adopt will in all probability be of considerable advantage to the Canadian Government, and I trust, therefore, that your Ministers will be in a position to give the assurance required. 5. I shall be glad to receive a reply by telegraph to this despatch. I have, &c, CRBWB. The Officer administering the Government of New Zealand. . Enclosure. Article I. The high contracting parties mutually and reciprocally agree that their subjects and citizens respectively, and all persons subject to their laws and treaties, and their vessels, shall be prohibited from engaging in pelagic sealing in any part of the waters of the Pacific Ocean and Behring Sea. and that every such person or vessel offending against this prohibition, may be seized and detained by the naval or other duly commissioned officers of either of this high contracting parties, but they shall be delivered as soon as practicable to the authorities of the nation to which they respectively belong, who alone shall have jurisdiction to try the offence and impose the penalties for the same, the witnesses and proof necessary to establish the offence being also sent with them, or otherwise furnished to the proper j urisdictional authority with all reasonable promptitude ; and they agree, further, respectively, to prohibit the use of any British or United States port by any persons for any purposes whatsoever connected with the operation of pelagic sealing in said waters, and to prohibit the importation or bringing of any fur-seal skins taken in such pelagic sealing into any British or United States port, and by the necessary legislation and enforcement of appropriate penalties thereunder to make such prohibitions effective. Such prohibitions, however, shall not apply to Indians dwelling on the coasts of the territory of the United States or of Great Britain and carrying on pelagic sealing in canoes not transported by or used in connection with other vessels, and propelled wholly by paddles, oars, or sails, and manned by not more than five persons each, in the way hitherto-practised by the Indians, without the use of firearms, provided such Indians are not in the employment of other persons, nor under contract for the delivery of the skins to any person.

A.-1, 1911, Nok. 24 and 2«.

No. 33. New Zealand, No. 128. Sir, — Downing Street, 17th June, 1910. With reference to my despatch, No. 188, of the 9th November, 1908, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information and consideration of your Ministers, the accompanying copies of the replies received up to the present from the self-governing dominions with reference to the report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Naturalization.