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plans of the proposed defensive works at Victoria and Esquimalt, referred to in your letter of the 26th July, together with a copy of a letter to the War Office on the subject.*

2. I am also to transmit to you a copy of a letter which has since been received from the Admiralty, inclosing a Report on the defence of the harbour of Esquimalt, from Rear- Admiral de Horsey, with the plans which accompany it.t

I am, &c.

(Signed) R. H. MEADE.

P.S.-It is requested that the inclosed Report and plans may be returned to this Department when done with, in order that the Report may be printed.

No. 336.

Colonial Office to Admiralty.

R. H. M.

(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,

Downing Street, September 20, 1878. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to acknowledge the receipt of your confidential letter of the 6th instant,† inclosing a Report from Rear-Admiral de Horsey, relative to the defence of the harbour of Esquimalt; and I am to request that you will inform the Lords Commissioners that your letter and inclosures have been laid before the Colonial Defence Committee.

2. I am to take this opportunity of transmitting, for the information of their Lord- ships, a copy of the correspondence noted in the margin, on the subject of the proposed works for the defence of Victoria and Esquimalt.‡

I am, &c. (Signed)

R. H. MEADE.

No. 337.

(Secret.) Sir,

War Office to Colonial Office.

War Office, September 21, 1878.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for War to acquaint you, for the information of Sir Michael Hicks Beach, that in consequence of reports which have been received from the station, it has been decided not to send out to the Cape of Good Hope the submarine mining stores proposed in the Report of the Colonial Defence Committee.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

J. L. A. SIMMONS, General.

No. 338.

Acting Governor Way to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.-(Received

(Confidential.) Sir,

September 27.)

Government House, Adelaide, August 8, 1878.

I HAVE the honour to inform you that on receipt of your secret despatch of the 22nd May last,§ I communicated by telegraph with the Governor of Western Australia. The conclusion of peace, however, appeared to both Sir Harry Ord and myself to make it unnecessary to carry on a correspondence by wire.

2. The mail now about to leave is the first opportunity I have had of addressing Sir Harry Ord by letter since receiving your despatch, and before any correspondence can be concluded Sir William Jervois will be here to make the Report which is required.

3. I may mention that, before receipt of your despatch, my Government and the Government of Western Australia were in negotiation for subsidizing a line of steamers between Port Adelaide and other South Australian ports and the ports of Western Australia. This project, if completed, would have afforded a convenient solution of the difficulty as to the carriage of the Western Australian mails, in the event of the mail- steamer having to come direct to Adelaide, without calling at King George's Sound.

* No. 324.

f No. 327.

‡ Nos. 310, 324, and 325.

§ No. 121.

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