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No.. 8. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the General Manager, New Zealand Shipping Company, Christchurch. . Sib,— General Post Office, Wellington, 23rd May, 1898. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, asking that the Department might pay the subsidy in respect of the Vancouver mail service to your company, and, in reply, to inform you that, on the accounts being adjusted, your request will be acceded to. I have, &c, The General Manager, New Zealand Shipping Company W. Gbay, Secretary. (Limited), Christchurch.

English (Paper 11., Literature). — For Senior Civil Service. Time allowed: 3 hours. 1. Discuss Lamb's criticism of the comedy of the Eestoration. Apply it to the comedy of the period of Queen Anne, and give a short account of the chief comedies produced between 1702 and 1714, naming the author of each. 2. Explain the following references : — (a.) The mysteries of Jamblicus or Plotinus. (b.) My household gods do not willingly seek Lavinian shores. (c.) Had he asked me of what song the Siren sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, I might, with Sir T. Browne, have hazarded a " wide solution." (d.) Pastoral Domenichino. (c.) Belisarius begging for an obolum. (/.) The Alsatia of hunted casuistry. (g.) The honest steward Flavius. (h.) The Lernean pangs are quenched, and Philoctetes is become an ordinary personage. (*.) The pen of Yorick could have drawn J. E. entire. (j.) At ease in our little Goshen. 3. (a.) Give a brief sketch of the character of Henry V. as drawn by Shakespeare. (b.) Write what you know of Fluellen, Nym, the Dauphin. 4. Eewrite the following passage briefly in modern English, avoiding tameness of style : — Thus, with imagined wing our swift scene flies, In motion of no less celerity Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen The well-appointed king at Hampton pier Embark his royalty ; and his brave fleet With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning. Play with your fancies, and in them behold ■ Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing ;|§ Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give";) To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails, Borne with the invisible and creeping wind, Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, Breasting the lofty surge. odo but think You stand upon the rivage and behold A city on the inconstant billows dancing. * * * * * Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy, And leave your England, as dead midnight still, Guarded with gJandsires, babies, and old women, Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance. 5. Trace the rise of newspaper and magazine writing in the age of Queen Anne. 6. Name and describe the chief works written by the following writers duriDg this period : Defoe, Dennis, Swift, Pope, Eowe, Berkeley, Gay.

Arithmetic. — For Class D. Time allowed: 3 hours. 1. Simplify 999 x {(0-653) 2 -(0-346) 2 } -h 0-30730 2. A certain number of regiments are formed into three brigades so that there are the same number of regiments in each, the regiments in any one brigade being of the same strength. Find the greatest possible number of regiments and the strength of each, the brigades containing 5622, 6540, and 6858 men respectively. 3. Find, without dividing, the remainders when 17,365,367 is divided by 4, 5, 9, and 100 respectively, showing in each case by what process of reasoning your result is obtained. 4. The rates of exchange being £1 = 25-4 francs, 3-. w 5 francs=los kreuzer, 60 kreuzer = l florin, and the cost of travelling in Germany being 1£ florins a German mile=4£ English miles, what is the cost of travelling in Germany 381 English miles ?