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tations on this subject to the Board of Trade, and I should be much obliged to you if you could furnish me with any additional particulars respecting Mr. Moffatt's service, as to where he was apprenticed, and whether or not this country can be properly regarded as his heme. I hava, &c., William Seed, W. Thomson, Esq., Chief Harbour Master, Dunedin. Secretary of Customs.

Chief Haeboub Mastee, Dunedin, to the Seceetaet of Customs, Wellington. Sic,— Harbour Office, Port Chalmers, 4th March, 1874. In reply to your communication of 24th ultimo, re Mr. Moffatt's service, &c, I have the honor to state that the family of which he is a member arrived here in 18G0, and reside in Dunedin still; that Thomas Moffatt attended the district schools, and afterwards the High School, from his arrival till May, 1866; then served as junior clerk in a Dunedin mercantile house for twenty-one months; and then went to sea in February, 1868, with Captain Logan, in the ship "William Davie," owned in Glasgow, and on arrival at that port was apprenticed either to Captain Logan or Patrick Henderson and Co., his parents cannot say which of the two. He has sailed with Captain Logan ever since, then in the " William Davie," now in the "J. N. Fleming." These vessels are regular traders here, and lie longer at this port than they do on the other side, so that Dunedin may be regarded as Mr. Moffatt's home. I have, &c, Wm. Thomson, The Secretary of Customs (Marine Branch), Wellington. Harbour Master.

Mr. T. Gbay to the Secbetaey of Customs. Colonial Certificates. Sic,— Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, 18th May, 1874. I am directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th March, in further reference to certain difficulties which have arisen in New Zealand in regard to three years' domicile qualification imposed by this Board on candidates for colonial certificates of competency, in which you give an instance of alleged hardship, and express a hope that the Board will be disposed to relax this condition, at least to the extent of allowing certificates to be granted to persons who have served continuously in ships trading to New Zealand for a period of, or for periods amounting to, three years immediately preceding their application to be examined. In reply, I am to inform you that there does not appear to be any need, in order to meet the cases to which you allude, to relax the regulations under which a man must either have been domiciled in New Zealand for three years, or have served on board vessels registered in the colony for that period. In the case of Mr. Moffatt, he was eligible for examination, as his domicile had been in New Zealand for three years, in the sense to which " domicile" can alone apply to seamen who are continually employed at sea; and the general cases to which you allude, where men have been longer in port in New Zealand, and spent more time with their friends there than in other places, a similar interpretation of the word domicile would apply. With regard to the remarks contained in the last paragraph of your letter, I am to st-atat, in the pointing out that when the master or first mate of any British vessel arriving in a British colony, had from any cause been removed, her officers of lower grades could bring the ship home, and that a certificate as master would not be necessary under the circumstances, this Board had overlooked the adoption of the 136 th section of " The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," by the Legislature of New Zealand, and they desire me to inform you that they approve of the Bpecial examinations in such cases to allow a lower officer of the ship to take command of the ship from New Zealand. I have, &c, The Secretary, Customs Department (Marine Branch), Thomas Geat. Wellington, New Zealand.

Commander E. A. Edwin to Mr. W. Seed. Sib, — Marine Department, Wellington, 11th August, 1874. In compliance with your request, I have now the honor to forward the following statement, showing the progress made with experimental system of weather reports, from the 28th of last April to the 30th June :— The Hon. the Commissioner of Customs having directed me to undertake this duty, and arrangements whereby I am now enabled to communicate direct with the Harbour Masters and other reporting officers having been completed, the necessary instructions were forwarded to them in the latter part of last April, and on the 28th of that month the first report was received from Lyttelton ; by the end of June reports were daily received from seventeen stations. As the instruments from which the observations are made are mostly aneroids, which are frequently found to have variable errors, a number of mercurial barometers have been ordered from England ; but as most of the observers would probably find a standard barometer difficult to read off, it has been decided to supply less expensive instruments. The duties of forecasting the weather were commenced during the second week in May, and although the instrumental errors are in some instances large, and are by no means accurately known, the experimental warnings forwarded have been in many instances correct.