Loo THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [pART II 
have in one or two cases while in office interested themselves 
in businesses connected with their Colonies. In one case 
at least in Western Australia the result was that the Governor 
of the Colony was sued in a public court with other persons 
as a guarantor of a scheme, and the case went against 
him Recently a dispatch from the Secretary of State has 
indicated the disadvantages of such procedure in the case 
of Governors and ex-Governors.2 
§ 5. CORRESPONDENCE RULES 
The rules as to correspondence have at times created a 
good deal of friction, but they now are settled on a reason- 
able basis? It is definitely decided that in all cases the 
Secretary of State will expect that representations from 
any person in a Dominion shall come to him through the 
Governor. It was argued with great heat by the redoubtable 
Sir George Grey, when he settled, after his retirement, in 
New Zealand, that he was entitled to address the Secretary 
of State directly, but the Secretary of State repudiated that 
view, which had indeed been bitterly opposed by Sir G. Grey 
himself when acted on by Imperial military officers during 
the war of 1862-70; and the Colonial Regulations contain 
the fixed rule that communications must be sent through the 
Governor on pain, if not so sent, of being sent back to him 
for a report. The Governor has no power to hold back 
a communication to the Secretary of State, but must send 
it on with such report as seems necessary ; if the matter 
relates to internal affairs, it will then be disposed of by 
referring the applicant to the Government with whose dis- 
cretion the question rests. All answers are invariably 
sent through the Governor, the only person in the Colony 
whom the Secretary of State ever addresses officially, though 
the Secretary to the Imperial Conference has been authorized 
since 1907-8 to correspond direct on minor matters with the 
ministers of the Dominions who constitute the Conference 4 
© West Australian, October 5, 1899. * Parl. Pap., Cd. 3794 (1907). 
* Colonial Regulations, chap. iv. Cf. New Zealand Parl. Pap., 1880, 
A. 1, pp. 16-17,26; A. 2, pp. 9, 37, 48. ¢ Parl. Pap., Cd. 3795 (1908).