D.~4

12

The dimensions of these steamers are—length on load-water line, 420 feet; breadth, 46 feet; depth, 32 feet; with a citadel deck for accommodation of first-class cabin passengers, and a poop for second-class cabin, and a topgallant forecastle. They are being built of steel, with a cellular double bottom for 800 tons water-ballast, in order to keep the vessels in- trim as the coal for the voyage is being burnt out, as well as giving great additional strength to the hull, and an important element of safety should they take the ground. The gross tonnage (register) is about 5,200 tons. The guaranteed average speed at sea is knots, but a higher rate of speed I do not doubt will be attained. The first-cabin accommodation in the citadel is (with the exception of a few family rooms of three berths) in state-rooms of two berths, 9 feet by 6 feet; and one-half of the secondcabin accommodation is in two-berth state-rooms. The 'tween-decks will be clear fore and aft for steerage passengers, accommodating there 580, at 18 superficial feet per adult, and fitted with pipe ventilation, which, though expensive to fit, is much more thorough than any other ventilation. The steamers are being built to the highest class at Lloyd's (under special survey), will have electric lighting, and every modern luxury. Fitted with refrigerators for conveyance of, at least, 750 tons of frozen meat. The citadel, upper and main decks, are of steel (sheathed with wood, of course), adding greatly to the structural strength of the vessels. Any further information required in regard to these steamers I will be very pleased to furnish you with. I have, &c, Sir F. Dillon Bell, K.C.M.G., ■ - Jas Galbraith. Agent-General for New Zealand, London.

Enclosure 2 in No. 18. The Secretary to the Agent-General to Mr. James Galbraith. Sir, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., Ist November, 1883. I am directed by the Agent-General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 31st ultimo, together with the plans of the steamers building by Messrs. W. Denny and Brothers for the Shaw-Savill-Albion Company. The Agent-General has examined these plans with great interest, and will have great pleasure in transmitting them to the New Zealand Government with your letter. They evince a careful regard to those requirements of a direct steam service which have been the subject of such frequent consultation between the Agent-General, yourself, and the Messrs. Denny during more than two years; and, comparing them with the original designs when first he entered into communication with you, they show improvements of such high value as cannot fail, in his opinion, to make the ships eminently suited to the development of the New Zealand trade. I have, &c, Walter Kennaway, James Galbraith, Esq., Secretary, Agent-General's Department. 15, St. Vincent Place, Glasgow.

No. 19. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Minister of Immigration. Sir, — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., Bth November, 1883. I transmit to you herewith a minute which I have prepared for the consideration of the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw-Savill-Albion Company, on the subject of the temporary arrangements to be made for the conveyance of Government emigrants and freight during the period extending from the present time to the next session of Parliament. Since receiving your letter of the Bth September (No. 170) I have given the most careful consideration to the course which was most likely to carry out the resolutions of the Joint Committee of' last session. The more I thought of it the less I liked the responsibility of deciding upon that course myself, for. there are difficulties inherent to the management of emigration by steam, or partly by steam and partly by sailing-ship, which it is quite impossible that any scheme whatever should be able to obviate. However, I have done the best I could, and now wait to see what the two companies will propose. The chief difficulty that I had lay, of course, in the second and third resolutions. The second resolution says that the arrangements (being consistent with efficiency) are to be such as shall be least burdensome to the revenue ; and the third says that due regard is to be paid to the claims of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Now supposing it should turn out that the New Zealand Shipping Company adhere to the rate of £16 they asked in the colony, and the Shaw-Savill-Albion Company adhere to their offer of £13 10s., the lowest rate ought, apparently, to be accepted, under the second resolution : but then what would become of the third ? It is clear that I must not interpret either resolution in a sense that would be inconsistent with the other, but endeavour to give effect as far as possible to both. The minute points to some of the embarrassments that will always exist. Be pleased, for instance, to take the case of the 250 Otago and Canterbury people whom I offered to the New Zealand Shipping Company for their steamship " Aorangi." When they were declined it would have been, absurd to make them wait a month for the next steamer of the same company, or to force them to go by sailing-ship when there was a steamer of the other company ready to take them. In like manner, the New Zealand Shipping Company have only this morning declined to take 250 Auckland emigrants I offered them for the steamer " Doric," and if the other company had a steamer leaving early in December, instead of on the 10th January, I should certainly send them by her instead of by the sailing-ship nominated by the New Zealand Shipping Company.