CHAP. I] THE GOVERNOR 101
The official rules as to correspondence are laid down in
detail in the Colonial Office rules. They contain a classifica-
tion of dispatches into public (which are numbered), confi-
dential, and secret. Of the two latter categories there are
two kinds in a responsible-government Colony, those which
are intended for ministers but deal with matters of military
or naval policy, or foreign relations, or similar questions,
personal and constitutional matters and so forth, which must
not be published without prior communication with the
Imperial Government. The degree of secrecy is illustrated
by the use of ‘ secret ’ or © confidential > respectively. Others
of the secret dispatches are personal to the Governor ; and
such dispatches he can only disclose to ministers so far as
is expressly or impliedly contained therein. The Governor’s
dispatches are likewise public, confidential, or secret, but the
Secretary of State has the full right to publish all or any of
these dispatches. In the new edition of the Colonial Regula-
tions this practice is qualified by the express statement that
he will usually consult the Governor ere he does so, and this
but embodies the practice of years, and is obviously due in
courtesy to the Governor and his Government. The power
of publication at pleasure has never been applied, of course,
to the confidential or secret communications of ministers
to the Governor, but only to his dispatches. Sir G. Grey
distinguished himself by declining indignantly to receive a
communication for the Secretary of State as confidential,
one of the misdemeanours resulting in his recall, and indeed
a gross violation of public decency?
! Colonial Regulations, No. 178. There also are ‘accounts’ dispatches,
which deal with matters emanating from the Accounts Department of the
Colonial Office, Library’ dispatches, and ¢ miscellaneous’ dispatches,
which emanate from the Chief Clerk’s Department, and deal with honours,
precedence, &c.
* Petitions to the King must (and very possibly the Governor might be
liable to suit for disobeying the rule) be sent on with a report, and all such
petitions are submitted to the King ; Colonial Regulations, No. 214, The
rules as to military correspondence in cases where there are Imperial troops
in the Colony are given in Nos. 192-8.
3 Rusdon. New Zealand, ii. 355 seq. ; Parl. Pap., May 5, 1868.
