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board was landed at South Cape. He further, after giving me false information, deserted his vessel, which proceeded to the Engineer Group without her having any one of the crew (who are all Chinese) with a certificate of any description. Ah Gim has declared that he is nominal master, but that he has nothing to do with the vessel besides to bring her from and to take her back to Cooktown. H.M.S. " Harrier," when on her voyage to the Solomon Islands, encountered and boarded this schooner, and ordered her to Dinner Island. I ordered that the vessel could not be in the Protectorate waters without a master onboard. As Ah Gim promised to remain on board in future, I gave permission to remove the vessel to prosecute her trade. I consider the offence of acting as nurse-master so serious that I have not considered it right to grant a new permit without reference to your Excellency. I beg to suggest to your Excellency that Dinner Island should be constituted a port of entry and clearance for the Protectorate, as it is evidently a hardship for vessels from Queensland to have to proceed to Port Moresby only to enter, and then to have to beat up against the monsoon to the Louisiades. H. 0. F. To His Excellency the Hon. John Douglas, C.M.G., H.M. Special Commissioner for British New Guinea. [I only received this letter on the 6th December. In the meantime I have seen Mr. Forbes at Samarai, and had concerted with him to take action in connection with the Craig massacre.—J. D.]

APPENDIX V. GENEEAL ORDER AS TO PLACES OP IMPRISONMENT WITHIN THE WESTERN PACIFIC. By His Excellency John Bates Thueston, Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Her Britannic Majesty's Assistant High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, &c, &c, &c. [l.s.] John B. Thueston. Whereas by the Western Pacific Order in Council of 1877 it is provided that Her Britannic Majesty's High Commissioner for the Western Pacific may, from time to time, by general order under his hand and official seal, prescribe the places within the Western Pacific Islands at which sentences of imprisonment of Her Britannic Majesty's High Commission Court for the Western Pacific are to be carried into execution : Now, I, John Bates Thurston, Her Britannic Majesty's Assistant High Commissioner aforesaid, under and by virtue of the power conferred upon me by the said Order in Council and all other power and authority in me vested, do hereby prescribe and appoint Port Moresby, in British New Guinea, to be a place at which sentences of imprisonment of the said Court are to be carried into execution, subject and according to the provisions of the said Order in Council. Given at Suva, Fiji, this fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six. By His Excellency's command. Wilfeed Collet, Secretary to the High Commissioner.

APPENDIX VI. Mr. H. 0. Foebes's Bepobt. Sic, — Dinner Island, South-eastern New Guinea, December, 1886. I have the honour to forward to your Excellency the following resume of the chief events that have occurred in this district during the period I have had the honour of acting as DeputyCommissioner, with some observations and suggestions thereon. Accompanied by Mrs. Forbes, I arrived here by H.M.S. " Swinger " from Suao on the 21st June last, and took up my quarters in the Mission-house rented by the Government from the London Missionary Society. Samarai or Dinner Island occupies a charming situation within a circle of high wooded islands and a bay of the mainland whose elevated blue peaks shut in the view northward. The Rev. S. McFarlane had planted a large number of cocoanut palms, and laid out a long avenue which affords a shady promenade, while numerous handsome-leaved crotons and scarlet hibiscus are planted everywhere about, giving quite a garden aspect to what would otherwise have been a rather barren shingly foreshore. A short examination of the island, however, revealed several serious defects. The water-supply was in a most unsatisfactory condition. There is no running water in the island ; and the whole of the drinking-water had to be obtained from one hole of a filthy description. Then, a large swamp was found to occupy several acres of the north-west portion, which at the close of the wet season cannot but be very detrimental to the salubrity of the island. The mission buildings were in a very dilapidated state, and required many additions and repairs to render them habitable; nor are they situated on the best site, being all on low flats and not exposed enough to the sea winds, which here ought to be fully courted. When it was announced to the natives that I had been sent to Dinner Island to represent the Government, I was looked upon by them with the greatest suspicion. They declared that they would have nothing to do with " the Government," and that they did not want " the Government " among them at all. For some time they gave myself and my residence a wide berth. They placed the Government in the same category as the man-of-war, of which, though they visit every vessel with perfect freedom when anchored here, they have an undercurrent of wholesome dread. It was many weeks before they could be persuaded to undertake any work for us. A few days after our arrival Lieutenant Commander Marx kindly permitted a few of his men