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111. The following letters are considered objectionable. Rewrite them, avoiding errors of language, form, or expression : — (a.) Sir, — Private Estates Department, Wellington, 15th January, 1900. I have the honour, by direction of the Minister of Lands, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, and to say in reply that the matter of the title to the Aorere estate is still being inquired into, and it is believed will be found valid. There is no use your coming to New Zealand to personally state your claims, seeing that these are well understood. One of the local officers whose report is necessary is at present absent, and when he returns I shall be able to bring the matter to a finish. I have, &c, P. Smyllie, Esq., Perth, Western Australia. Secretary. (b.) Sir, — Private Estates Department, Wellington, 4th June, 1901. Regret I am unable to alter my decision with regard to the road proposed through your property. The Minister does not see his way to have a road made through it; although he is prepared to give full weight to all the considerations of the public interest urging him thereto. He sees that such would be of some service to the settlers at Wairere, but they can make use of the main Taniwha Road, and other settlers in other parts of the colony have more urgent needs and must first receive attention. Regret that this matter cannot be fixed up in such a manner as to suit your wishes. I will be pleased if you will pay the survey-fees incurred without delay. I wrote to you thereanent on the sth ultimo. I have, &c, L. Roller, Esq., Whenuakino, Wanganui. Secretary. (o.) Madam, — Private Estates Department, Wellington, 4th December, 1901. I find that you are right, after all, in stating that in your correspondence with this office you have always written your name Sara Ellen Tomlinson, not Sarah Ellen Tommlinson, as stated in my letter of the 16th May to your solicitor, and in your certificate of title to the Korewhenua estate. If you want to have the certificate altered, you had better send it back to this office. I have, &c, Mrs. Tomlinson, Korewhenua, Invercargill. Secretary.

English. Paper ll. — Language and Literature. For Civil Service Senior (Old and New Regulations). Time allowed: 3 hours. 1. Write two paragraphs on Elizabethan literature as an interpretation of the life of the time. 2. What do you know of John Lyly and his " Euphues " ? Can you mention any illustrations of his literary influence ? 3. Write brief notes on the subject-matter of the following: " The Schoolmaster "; "Arcadia;" "Ecclesiastical Polity." 4. Explain the plan of the " Faery Queene " ; and point out (1) its allegorical significance, and (2) its chief poetical characteristics. 5. Who were Shakespeare's predecessors in the history of the English drama? Outline any play written by one of them ; and point out the literary characteristics of the author. 6. Trace, with references to important plays, the growth of Shakespeare's mind from his early manhood down to his closing years at Stratford. 7. Either give the evidence for the chronology of "The Tempest," and point out some of the leading ideas in the play; or give the evidence for the chronology of "King Lear," and point out some of the leading ideas in the play. 8. Mention some of the chief characters in " Romola," arranging them in two groups as historical or as fictitious ; and write brief notes on one in each group. 9. From your study of George Eliot's " Romola," what impressions have you formed of the character of the Florentines in the fifteenth century ? 10. Write notes on the following, under A or B, mentioning the speaker in each case :— A. (From " King Lear.") (a.) Goose, if I had you upon Sarum Plain, I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot. (b.) He gives the web and the pin. (c.) Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow-weeds, With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers. (d.) And my poor fool is hang'd. (c.) Thou out of heaven's benediction comest To the warm sun ! B. (From " The Tempest.") (a.) To trash for over-topping. (6.) Each putter-out of five for one. (c.) Will you troll the catch You taught me but while-ere ? (d.) I will disease me, and myself present As I was sometime Milan. ».) Thy broom-groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-clipt vineyard ; And thy sea-marge.