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2. Sir Michael Hicks Beach will be glad if the request of the Government of South Australia can be complied with.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

R. H. MEADE.

No. 272.

The Marquis of Normanby to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.—(Received

(No. 24.) Sir,

August 6.)

Government House, Wellington, June 22, 1878. REFERRING to your telegram of the 28th May, I now beg to inclose the copy of a Memorandum from my Government, in which they give their reasons for wishing to delay for a few days before determining whether or not an engineer officer should be brought to this Colony from New South Wales.

Inclosure in No. 272.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

Memorandum for his Excellency.

NORMANBY.

SIR GEORGE GREY presents his respectful compliments to the Marquis of Normanby, and thinks it desirable to delay for a few days determining whether or not an engineer officer should be brought to this Colony from New South Wales.

Ministers still cling to the hope that war may not take place; and as some time must elapse before the guns applied for can arrive in the Colony, under any circumstances no harm can arise from delaying for a few days an application for an engineer officer.

(Signed)

G. GREY.

Wellington, June 20, 1878.

No. 273.

India Office to Colonial Office.

Sir,

India Office, August 6, 1878. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acquaint you, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the Government of India have applied for complete sets of Defence Papers, containing Reports of Departmental Com- mittees, designs, results of experiments, confidential or otherwise, copies of completed defences or projected proposals, &c., which may be in the possession of the War Office and the Admiralty. Application has accordingly been made to those Departments, but it is stated in a letter from the Admiralty that the Defence Committee was formed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and that any papers required for the Indian Govern- ment should be obtained from the Colonial Office. I am, therefore, to state that Lord Cranbrook would be glad if the required information could be furnished from the Colonial Office, for communication to the Government of India.

I have, &c.

(Signed) ALLEN JOHNSON, Colonel,

Military Secretary.

No. 274.

Admiralty to Colonial Office.

Admiralty, August 8, 1878.

(Secret.) Sir,

WITH reference to previous correspondence respecting the protection of Esquimalt, Cape Town, Hong Kong, and Singapore by Whitehead torpedoes, and in reply to your letter of the 5th ultimo* requesting to be favoured with their Lordships' views as to the anner in which these torpedoes can be kept in a secure and efficient manner, as well

* No. 220.

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