Enclosure 11 in No. 9.

Memorandum for the Premier.

The Governor, in reply to Ministers' Memorandum of the 5th inst., does not propose to make any comment upon it, except in the first place to explain that "the best information he was able to obtain" was procured solely from public documents and the Memorandum left by Lord Onslow.

In the second place, with regard to the passage where Ministers submit "that the Governor being neutral in politics, is in no way permitted by the "spirit of the Constitution to do anything which will prevent the feelings of *' the country from being expressed by legislation," he wishes it to be distinctly understood that the sentence quoted accurately expresses the principle which has actuated him in the course be has adopted. The country should not in any way be prevented from expressing its feeling as to legislation.

The fact is, that the idea underlying the whole case of Ministers is that whatever measures an Administration brings forward are certain to express the feeling of the country.

The Governor directly traverses that assumption, and points out that the suspensory powers conferred by the Constitution on the Second Chamber is a constitutional check intended to give power to the Electorate, through the intervention of the Legislative Council at any time to step in and control legislation.

This plan ensures greater freedom to the Electorate than that favoured by Ministers.

The Governor sees no reason for continuing the correspondence, and he intends to send the series of communications between Ministers and himself, of which this is the last, along with the reference which he has been asked to send to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.