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No. 5. The Secretary, Board of Trade, Ottawa, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. The Board of Trade of the City of Ottawa, Sir, — Ottawa, Canada, 10th April, 1900. I have been instructed to convey to you the following resolutions assented to at a general meeting of this Board, held on the 2nd instant, in support of the Pacific cable. " Resolution No. 1. —(1.) That, while the proposed Pacific cable would foster trade and intercolonial intercourse, it would at the same time constitute the initial link in a system of cables to all British possessions around the globe, and that such a system would form a new bond of Imperial unity of inestimable value. (2.) That this Board regards it as of vital importance that the Pacific cable should be completed, as a State undertaking, without delay. (3.) That, in view of the great object to be attained, this Board is strongly of the opinion that it would be wise policy to make full provision for ultimate State ownership in any arrangement hereafter made to lay cables by private companies between British possessions in any part of the globe. (4.) That this Board recommends that the principle of State ownership be especially provided for in the cable proposed to be laid by a private company between South Africa and Australia. " Eesolution No. 2.—That this Board attaches so much importance to the resolution respecting the Pacific cable that it especially requests the members for the City of Ottawa to bring the subject before the Government and Parliament. " Eesolution No. 3.—That a copy of the resolution respecting the Pacific cable be transmitted to the principal Chambers of Commerce in the United Kingdom, with the request that they will move the Home Government to reserve the right to Her Majesty to assume possession of the cable in any arrangement for laying a cable by a private company between South Africa and Australia. Trusting the foregoing resolutions may meet with your approval, I have, &c, The Hon. the Postmaster-General, Wellington. Cecil Bethune, Secretary.

No. 6. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Wellington. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington, 20th April, 1900. I have the honour, by direction, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th ultimo, forwarding copy of a telegram received from the Postmaster-General, Queensland, concerning the Pacific-cable question. I have, &c, Thomas Eose, for the Secretary. The Secretary, Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Wellington.

No. 7. Eesolution passed by the Fourth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire concerning Imperial Telegraphic Communication. (Eeceived under cover of a letter of the 31st July, 1900, from the London Chamber of Commerce, for the Fourth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, to His Excellency the Governor.) That this Congress desires to call special attention to the necessity of completing the all-British Pacific cable, not only on commercial grounds, but in the interests of Imperial security. That this Congress recommends that support should be given to the action which the Imperial Telegraph Committee of the House of Commons is taking with a view of placing the important matter of electrical communication between the United Kingdom, India, and the British colonies and dependencies on a footing commensurate with present conditions of inter-Imperial and colonial relations. That copies of this resolution be addressed to the Prime Minister, the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for India, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Postmaster-General, and the Governors of the self-governing colonies, urging that every reasonable opportunity may be given in Parliament for discussion of the position of the telegraph companies in relation to the Government, with a view to an immediate and satisfactory solution being found for the very serious grievances under which the commercial and industrial communities of the Empire have been labouring for a long time past. That, in view of the great object to be attained, this Congress is strongly of opinion that it would be wise policy to make full provision for ultimate State ownership in any arrangements hereafter made to lay cables by private companies between British possessions in any part of the globe. That this Congress recommends that the principle of State ownership be especially provided for in the cable proposed to be laid by a private company between South Africa and Australia. That this Congress urges upon Her Majesty's Government the importance of instituting a searching investigation by the departmental Committee, promised by the Government, into both the shortcomings and the merits of a private system of cables, and consequently into the desirability