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Sib,— Lloyd's, E.C., Ist June, 1896. I have the honour, by direction of the committee of Lloyd's, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th May, with regard to the notification of changes of captains, and to inform you that my committee would be very grateful to the Board of Trade if it could be arranged to allow the changes of captains to be notified to Lloyd's agents at the following ports by the consular officers at those ports : Yokohama, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle (New South Wales), Auckland, New York, Philadelphia, Shanghai. If this arrangement can be carried out, my committee will be very pleased to pay a small fee for the information, but my committee would be very grateful if the information could be forwarded to Lloyd's agent from the consulate, since the application at the consulate by Lloyd's agent entails such constant visits that these, it is found, are exceedingly fatiguing, both to Lloyd's agency and the consular office. If a small fee were charged for the information, it is probable that some messengers of the consulate would be very willing to transmit the information. I am, &c, The Eegistrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, H. Hoziee, Secretary. Customhouse, London, B.C. (Memorandum.) A change of master may seriously affect the insurance rates, and Lloyd's are anxious to obtain information of changes abroad by telegraph. Section 19 of the Act requires all changes of masters to be reported (a) to this office, and under an arrangement entered into many years ago with Lloyd's we inform them of such changes, but this system is not sufficiently rapid. I attach a copy of Form No. 21, now used for these reports, and would suggest that Consuls and colonial officers might report changes on one of these forms to Lloyd's local agent at ports* where the system is introduced, on payment of, say, a fee of 2s. 6d. The number of reports from the colonies and abroad is about fourteen or fifteen hundred a year, but this number includes a good many changes in small local vessels about which Lloyd's would probably not care to incur any great expense. J. Clack Hall. The Assistant Secretary, Marine Department, Board of Trade.

No. 8. (No. 32.) My Lobd, — Downing Street, 22nd June, 1896. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch, No. 5, of the 7th February, transmitting a memorandum from the Premier, Mr. Seddon, respecting the practice which has been followed by successive Secretaries of State, when telegraphing on matters affecting all the Australasian Colonies, of sending one telegraphic despatch to the Governor of South Australia and requesting him to repeat the contents to the Governors of the other colonies. I shall be glad if, in future, . When communicating such telegrams to your Ministers, you will commence by saying that you " have received through the " Governor of South Australia the following telegraphic despatch from the " Secretary of State for the Colonies "; and I hope that this course will sufficiently meet Mr. Seddon's objection that the telegrams cannot be treated as despatches. But, whenever it is necessary to telegraph at all to the Australasian Colonies on a matter of such urgency that the possible delay of repeating the message from Adelaide seems to the Secretary of State likely to be of moment, care will be taken, as has been done on previous occasions, that the message shall be transmitted direct to the Governor of New Zealand. I am, however, unwilling, in ordinary circumstances, to abandon the practice of transmitting a message to one Governor for repetition to the Governors of the other colonies of the Australasian group, as by this means it is possible for the Secretary of State to send one message instead of seven messages in identical language; and it would be difficult to defend in Parliament the abandonment of a practice which effects so great a saving of public money, which has worked satisfactorily for many years, and which has not hitherto formed the subject of any complaint. I trust that this explanation will be accepted by your Ministers as satisfactory. I have, &c, J. CHAMBEELAIN. Governor the Eight Hon. the Earl of Glasgow, G.C.M.G., &c.

A.-l, 1896, No. 23.

* It is not proposed to introduce the system at all ports, but only at certain more important ones, as Lloyd's may think fit.—J. C. H.