Rev. Josiah Pratt To Earl Bathurst.

As Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, I am directed by the Committee very respectfully to state to Your Lordship that the Society has established, at a very great expence, settlers on the coast of the Bay of Islands in New Zealand page 408 with a view to the civilization of the natives and to the ultimate introduction among them of letters and Christianity, and that the Committee are preparing various stores and goods, to be consigned to the Rev. Samuel Marsden, at Parramatta, for the sole use of the said settlers, and not for the purposes of trade.

They do, therefore, very respectfully solicit from your Lordship permission to ship such stores and goods, amounting to about 8 tons, on board the Lord Melville now taken up, as they understand, by Government, as a convict ship for New South Wales; or on board any other vessel which may be employed on Government service.