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complaint from Messrs. Upton and Co., Auckland, regarding delay to their newspapers, which delay would be obviated were the North Island mails forwarded via Italy only in the first week after the mails vid San Francisco leave London, the San Francisco service being made available for the other mails for that part of New Zealand. I am, &c, The Secretary, General Post Office. Walter Kennaway.

Enclosure 2 in No. 118. The Secretary, General Post Office, London, to the Agent-General. Sir,— , General Post Office, E.C., 17th September, 1901. With reference to your letter of the 3rd instant, respecting the mail-service with New Zealand by way of San Francisco, I am directed by the Postmaster-General to inquire whether you are yet in a position to furnish him with the details of the working of that service as compared with the service by way of Suez, which were asked for in the letter from this office of the Bth of March last [Enclosure 2 in No. 142, F.-6, 1901] . These details are essential to the formation of a correct judgment on the question whether this Department could properly consent to the proposal that mails for the North Island of New Zealand should be sent by the route of Suez only in the first week after the regular despatch by the route of San Francisco. I am, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand. H. Buxton Forman.

Enclosure 3 in No. 113. The Secretary to the Agent-General to the Secretaey, General Post Office, London. Sic, — 13, Victoria Street, S.W., 25th September, 1901. I am directed by the Agent-General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, inquiring whether he can furnish you with details of the working of the San Francisco mail-service as compared with the service by way of Suez, and in reply to say that the particulars you require are given in the monthly statements forwarded direct to your office by the General Post Office at Wellington, New Zealand. In case these statements have not reached your office, the Agent-General will be glad to furnish copies of the same from January last to the beginning of July. I am,&c, The Secretary, General Post Office. Walter Kennaway.

Enclosure 4 in No. 113. The Secretary, General Post Office, London, to the Agent-General. Sir,— General Post Office, E.C., 10th October, 1901. With reference to your further letter of the 3rd ultimo, respecting a proposal that the mails for places in the North Island of New Zealand, at present despatched from this country by way of Suez in the week preceding a despatch of mails by way of San Francisco, should be kept back for transmission by the San Francisco route, I am directed by the Postmaster-General to inform you that the monthly returns furnished by the New Zealand Post Office have been examined in order to ascertain in what way the proposed alteration would have,affected the arrival of mails in the colony during the quarter ended the 30th June last. It has been found that the mails for Auckland and Wellington despatched hence on the 19th April and the 31st May would have been delivered sooner under the proposed arrangement, but that those for Auckland despatched on the 29th March, the 10th May, and the 21st June, and those for Wellington despatched on the 10th May and the 21st June, would have been delayed. In the case of the mail of the 29th March for Wellington, there seems to have been no difference between the two routes in the time of arrival. These results do not seem to the Postmaster-General to be such as would justify him in interfering with the present arrangements. I am, &c, The Agent-General for New Zealand. H. Buxton Forman.

No. 114. The Secretaey, General Post Office, Wellington, to the J. D. Spreckels and Bros. Company, San Francisco. Gentlemen, — General Post Office, Wellington, 15th October, 1901. I have the honour to inform you that Mr. fl. Stephenson Smith, Besident Agent in San Francisco, has reported that you kindly arranged with the Lake Shore Eailroad Company to send a special train from Chicago on arrival of the " Ventura's " mails at that point, thus securing the arrival of the mails at New York in time to connect with the " Campania," which sailed on the 7th ultimo, and enabling them to be delivered in London on due date. Your action has been brought under the notice of the Postmaster-General, who desires me to tender you his best thanks for arranging the special train.