E.—No. 4.

30

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL SERVICE.

We arrived at the Bay of Islands at 5 p.m. on the same day, and after some vexatious delay succeeded in obtaining 60 tons of coal, and left on the 14th at 2 p.m.. and arrived in Auckland nest morning. The mails were sent immediately to the Post Office to be sealed, and as it was high water at Onehunga at 12 noon, I had them sent across and shipped by that hour. The " Phoebe" left a few minutes thereafter, but, as it is ebb-tide at the Manakau Heads much earlier than it is at the Onehunga, wharf, we were rather late, and grounded three times in crossing the bar, with a heavy sea running. "We arrived at Taranaki at daylight, and left again at 8.30 a.m., arriving at Nelson at 11 o'clock same night; landed the mails and passengers and left an hour and a half after; arrived at Picton at 9 a.m. on the 17th, and at Wellington at 3 p.m. same day, making the trip from the Manakau Heads to Wellington in less than forty-seven hours. To obviate some loss of time that occurs in connecting at Honolulu, I would suggest that the outward steamer leave Auckland on the 3rd or the 4th at the latest, instead of the 7th as at present. I have, &c, The Hon. Julius Vogel, Wellington. W. G-kay.