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Liverpool were inferior, especially the salt pork and preserved onions. The tanks, being rather rusty, tainted the water shipped at Pernambuco, and which was otherwise good. 4. Medical Comforts, with exception of port wine, were ample and good. The port wine was, I considered, of very inferior quality. 5. Medicines from London were ample aud good. Those procured in Pernambuco were not good, but were the best obtainable iv the place. 6. State of Health.— ln the early part of the voyage, before the fire, there was one case of scarlatina, of a very mild type, and two or three of chicken-pox. The former was at once isolated, and no one else had the disease. The latter were convalescent in due course. AVith these exceptions there have been no serious illnesses at sea, but while on Cocoanut Island diarrhcea, sometimes of a dangerous kind, prevailed more or less all the time. Since leaving Pernambuco various conditions, indicating depraved or impoverished state of blood, have been prevalent, generally remedied by the free use of hoematinics or other tonics. These I attribute partly to the inferior quality of food supplied by the Liverpool house, but chiefly to the six weeks' residence in an enervating climate. These conditions have shown themselves more among the single women than the married people or single men, I believe because the ventilation is least effective in their quarters. 7. Emigrants. —The general conduct of emigrants has been good. Among the single women discipline has been well observed, and, though I have had to interfere several times to support the matron in discharging her duties, with one exception I have no complaint to make. The exception refers to S B , who has throughout the voyage been very unruly and insolent, as will be seen on referring to the paragraphs in my diary. Among the single men, S was on the island persistently drunk and unmanageable. He and several others were imprisoned in Pernambuco for that offence, shortly after wo arrived there, in the hope that it would be a salutary warning to all. The others behaved very well on being released, but S got drunk on several other occasions. 8. The Begulations have been on the wholo well observed. Any breaches in their observation which have come to my notice have been checked at once. The constables have assiduously done their duty, and I may especially mention Smith and Osborne, the single women's constables, whose duties are the most arduous of all, as worthy of praise for the way in which they have carried them out. 9. School. —This was ably conducted and regularly attended, and there was also a well attended class among the single men, before the fire, in which the register aud books, &c, were destroyed. Since the fire there has been no school because no materials. 10. Water. —The distilling apparatus on board is that of " AVinchester," made by Starne, and is very inefficient. In a day of eleven hours, it requires 7to 8 cwt. of coal to produce from 200 to 225 gallons of water, working at a pressure of from 25 lb. to 30 lb. per square inch. It has no cooking apparatus attached to it. The water produced is of good and wholesome quality, but is insufficient for daily use, for, though the figures I give would nearly comply with clause 22 of the charter-party, still when it is worked for a whole day and night it does not give proportionate results. 11. Ventilation. —There was no definite apparatus on board, but cowl and mushroom-bead ventilators. On the whole, they were sufficient, but in the single women's compartment they were certainly not effective in purifying the atmosphere. The air-shaft opening on the poop is, I consider, badly constructed, having a hinge-lid on the top, which it is necessary to shut when raining, thereby closing the most efficient ventilator in the single women's compartment. 12. General remarks. —With regard to discipline, I have found it much more advantageous to divide the single men into two groups, English and Irish, and to have an English constable over the English group, and an Irish one over the Irish, instead of the usual arrangement; and to let each group understand that they are required to act under their own special constable only. 1 would suggest, also, that the single men and women be provided with some employment in which skilled labour is not requisite, such as making sacks, nets, dresses, &c., and paid small wages, according to the work done. This would, I think, tend to keep them more contented, and leave less scope for mischief-making and disputes. To insure the cleaning and sweeping being done efficiently, I made a rule that all the people, except those whose names were on the cleaners and sweepers' list for the day, and those'suffering from sickness, should be on deck, weather permitting, between the hours of 9 and 10 a.m., and have found it to answer exceedingly well, though sometimes have had a difficulty in carrying it out. I would suggest that a clause to that effect be printed in the regulations. I would suggest, also, that the hatches be made to open sideways, instead of fore-and-aft, so that the flaps on the weather-side could always be closed when any sea or spray was likely to come on board, and so prevent the wetting of the 'tween decks, which is constantly occurring from that cause. For the extinction of fire, I think it would be well, in all emigrant ships, to provide three large barrels or hogsheads of chalk, oyster shells, unburnt limestone, marble chips, or other carbonate of lime, one to be placed in the bottom of each hold—fore, main, and after—and from each of these to have a suitable leaden tube leading to the main deck, and a sufficient supply of hydrochloric or other acid, kept in a place at all times accessible, so that by pouring the acid on the lime, large quantities of carbonic acid gas would soon be evolved, and extinguish the fire. This is my first voyage with Government emigrants. I have, &c., T. Beaufoy Geeen, Surgeon-superintendent of emigrant ship " Piako." To the Emigration Commissioners, Port Lyttelton.

Enclosure 4 in No. 34. Minutes of Peoceedings of Covet of Inquiey as to cause of the Fiee on board the " Piako." Ship "Piako." Minutes of proceedings of Court of Inquiry held on board the ship " Piako," on Thursday, 6th March,