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(ii.) Shaw, Saville, and Go's Line. In 1881 this line carried in the outward voyage of fifty-seven ships, aggregating 55,859 tons, 168 saloon, 201 second cabin, and 676 steerage (exclusive of Government immigrants) ; or, altogether, 1,045 of all classes. The rates of passage-money were about forty guineas in the saloon, from £23 to to £24 (average) second cabin, and about £15 (average) in the steerage. The number of homeward passengers was small. (iii.) Albion Company's Lines. In 1881 this line carried in nine ships, aggregating 9,400 tons, 49 saloon passengers, 70 second cabin, and 187 steerage (exclusive of Government immigrants). This was (as in tho case of the New Zealand Shipping Company) less than the average of the five years 1877-81, which amounted to 88 in the saloon, 24 in the second cabin, and 342 in the steerage. The rates of passage-money were forty guineas in the saloon, £25 second cabin, and £17 steerage. On the homeward voyages the Albion ships had, in 1881, 45 saloon passengers, and 51 steerage; the average of the same five years being 35 in the saloon, 7 in the second cabin, and 72 in the steerage. The passage-money homeward was £45 in the saloon and £20 in the steerage. (iv.) Summary of the Three Lines. Adding together the outward passengers by all three lines for 1881, it will be seen that these were — Saloon. Second Cabin. Steerage. New Zealand Shipping Company ... ... 171 151 203 Shaw, Saville, and Co. ... ... ... 168 201 676 Albion Company ... ... ... ... 49 70 187 388 422 1,066 —or altogether 1,876 passengers of all classes who paid their own passages. As that year was a very low one for numbers, I think it is a safe estimate to take about 500 saloon and 450 second-cabin passengers as an ordinary number by sailing ships to New Zealand in the course of a year. Now my estimate for each postal steamer was fifty saloon passengers outwards, and forty second cabin ; and for the mercantile steamer thirty saloon and twenty second cabin. In the postal line, assuming thirteen voyages, my calculation would give a total number of 650 saloon passengers and about 500 second cabin for the year. If this should seem an excessive estimate when compared with the actual numbers given above for the three lines of sailing ships in 1881, it must be remembered not only that 1881 was a low year, but that in, addition to the saloon and second-cabin passengers who took their passage in those ships, there were certainly many more who went out via Australia in P. and O. and Orient steamers; and, although I am not supposing that there never would be saloon passengers in sailing ships if a direct postal steam line were established, it may fairly be said, at any rate, that most of those I am now speaking of as having gone round by Australia would swell the passenger list of direct steamers; while it can hardly be doubted that, putting as I have done the rate for second cabin at £35, a certain proportion of that class also would go out by steam rather than by sailing ship, even at £10 more. As regards the mercantile steamer, it seems to me obvious that, taking the numbers as I have estimated them, for the outward voyage, at thirty (with a passage-money of £50) in the saloon, and twenty (with a passage-money of £30) in the second cabin, direct steamers might be expected to carry these numbers, seeing that they are less than the actual passengers of both classes by sailing ships in one of the lowest years known in the New Zealand trade. I am carefully avoiding sanguine predictions as to the early development of passenger traffic by the establishment of a direct steam service, because my object is not to deal with suppositions, but simply to justify, if I can, from actual facts, the estimates I have ventured to give you of passenger revenue to be expected at the present time. Still, it is necessary, as I said above, to see what development has resulted from the establishment of steam services to Australia; and I proceed to ask your attention to this. (v.) Passenger Trade by Steam to Australia. The P. and O. ships are now carrying from 1,200 to 1,500 saloon passengers, and 600 to 700 second cabin, on their outward voyages to Australia. The homeward traffic is somewhat less. As you are aware, the P. and O. take no third-class passengers. The Orient ships carried 4,335 saloon and second-cabin passengers to Australia in 1881, and over 5,600 steerage. These two lines alone, therefore, independently of many private steamers and all the sailing ships, are now carrying at the rate of 6,000 cabin passengers, and not far from 6,000 steerage (exclusive of Government emigrants). Taking these three classes together, we have a total of at least 12,000 people going by those lines to Australia every year, or 1,000 every month, besides whatever number travel by other steamers and by sailing ship: these last lam excluding from consideration altogether, as being a class which has already shown its rejection of steam in favour of sailing ship, and which therefore had perhaps better not be taken as likely to increase the proportion of steamer passengers for some time to come. Now my estimate of saloon and second-cabin passengers who might be expected to travel by fast postal steamers to New Zealand was not 1,200 of both classes in the year, and in the mercantile steamers only 650; and, with regard to steerage passengers, even if two two-thirds of the number I estimated in the mercantile steamer are taken as Government immigrants, and as many first and secondcabin passengers are supposed as in the postal steamer, the total would only come to about 2,000 passengers of all classes who would pay their own passage every year by steam, which is not one-sixth of the number who actually travel by steam to Australia. But if the normal amount of passenger traffic by steam to the several colonies of the Australasian group may be at all measured by the amount of their respective populations, such a proportion as onesixth is much less than the one that should be expected in a future calculation for New Zealand. At